Mallesh works for a seed company in Bangalore and sells seeds in Hyderaguda. This post may be of some interest to my friends who share a bond with Hyderabad and for others it is a story of a changing city that adapts in so many ways to the new.
Back to my chat with Mallesh on the train ( The TTE breed of new India is a refreshing change and a post on that some other time). Some of the things he told me were
1.The Chicken will get cooked but not tomatoes of the hybrid variety (laxmi 501 or similar) . The tonnage yield has gone up many times but the the sourness and taste of the "original' are lost forever
2.There are hardly any grape gardens in Hyderabad ( yes, quite a revelation to me!) most have converted to growing vegetables and the structures used for grapes are suitable for gourds of all kinds. So you get good looking snake gourd, bitter gourd, bottle gourd. etc.
3. It is extremely profitable to grow vegetables especially if you have a contract farming arrangement with modern trade or chain retailers.
4. Hyderguda is still the main market for all seeds, pesticides and farm requirements even if the farms have gone further from the city. There are 40-50 Bangalore companies selling seeds in Hyderabad.
5. The use of pesticides for vegetables is going on at unbelievably high rates. Cauliflower and cabbage needing the most.
6. Hyderabad grows carrots, cauliflower, cabbage ( both white and purple), .....once thought to be from cooler climates only
7.Sitaphal does not need any pesticides. Papaya however has recently joined the club of using high amounts of pesticides.
Shifting from traditional plants like grapes to nice looking vegetables for the modern supermarket is obvious, what surprised me was the scale of the migration that has happened. Am happy Hyderabad now gets a wide range of really nice looking vegetables...loaded with pesticides? Yes but that is true for almost any place.
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