A three-day national seminar on grape cultivation and wine industry will be held here from Saturday.
It is being organised by the Karnataka State Grape Producer’s Association under the aegis of the University of Horticulture Sciences, Bagalkot, the Department of Horticulture, and the Karnataka Wine Board.
It will be held at the Ranga Mandir and Raisin Online Trading Centre adjacent to the district stadium.
“The event is aimed at bringing experts under one roof for sharing their expertise with grape growers. As Karnataka is the second highest producer of grape and wine in the country after Maharashtra, it is imperative for the growers here to learn modern and scientific techniques to augment production and find new marketing avenues to get higher revenue,” Abhaykumar Nandrekar, president of the association, said.
He said that despite producing over 60,000 tonnes of grape a year, the growers here were not getting enough profit.
The market price of raisin, a byproduct of grape, was falling as the cost of production was going up. “In such a situation, the growers are desperately seeking the intervention of the government. As Shamanur Mallikarjun, Minister for Horticulture, is attending the event, we will urge him to fix the minimum support price of raisin at Rs. 150 a kg to help growers,” Mr. Nandrekar said.
T. Somu, managing director of the Karnataka Wine Board, said that about a dozen wine producers would participate in the wine fest and they would showcase 150 varieties of wine. He said that the board was making efforts to increase the sale of wine among the people as an alternative to liquor. Mr. Somu claimed that after the board was set up, the production of wine had gone up from 5 lakh litres to one core litres a year.