Anil Rajaram Yesugade has been cultivating grapes for the last 8-10 years. He grows two varieties of Grapes- Manik Chaman and Super Sonka.
As grapes are very sensitive crops, the change in climate causes the occurrence of diseases like downy, powdery mildew and blight and to control them he had to use chemical fungicides every 10-12 days. Similarly, he had to work very hard to control insects that attack the crop like mealybugs, spiders, weevils, mites, aphids, etc. Excessive use of fertilizers and herbicides had made the soil barren and had brought down the number of friendly insects and bacteria in the soil.