Recently I happened to attend the 2nd Young Changemakers Conclave organized by the UN Information Center of India and Bhutan and the US Consulate General. I was one of the two hundred under-35 Indians to be selected from over a few thousand applicants. The speakers ranged from Social Organization CEOs, Editor-in-Chief of Times Now and Member of Parliaments to country's best known tennis legend, celebrities from Bollywood, the transgender activist, cook, musicians, etc. And there was one such speaker who caught my attention distinctively, with a touch of intellect and care. And thus I, here, share the story of Sula Vineyards.

 

Rajeev Samant was one of those Indians who returned to India during the early nineties leaving behind his job at Oracle Corporation in Silicon Valley, with a dream of becoming an entrepreneur. He had Economics and Engineering Management degrees from Stanford University and decided to purchase a 20-acre piece of land in Nasik, a town a little far away from Mumbai, from his father who was trying to sell it off. His idea of indulging into an agriculture-based business startled everyone and for next five years he tried to cultivate tomatoes to roses, failing terribly and then hitting on what the rest of the city was growing: grapes. And thus the largest winery of the country, Sula Vineyards, was built. What he mentioned next was this, "I have one advice for you guys. If ever life gave you a chance, try to go and study in the US. The experience is invaluable and beautiful" And then he opened up the sweet little facts of Sula Vineyards, how he had taken care of making the vineyard eco-friendly and environmentally compatible. He added the fact that every family of the neighboring villages has at least one member who is employed at the vineyards. I listened the rest of his story and read few sources to compile the sustainable winery practices at Sula Vineyards.

 

After a decade of existence, Sula vineyards started an initiative called 'Green Sula' in the year 2009 to minimize carbon emissions with the minimum possible negative marks on environment. It aims to replace chemical fertilizers with farmyard manure and has currently 40% of the fertilization needs met by organic compost from pomace, constituting of the grape skins, seeds and stems left out after crushing, and the food waste from the local restaurants. It generates around 80 tonnes of compost annually. The vineyards use natural alternatives over the artificial pesticides and has complete ban over the potential chemicals.

 

The winery has insulation on all its fermentation and storage tanks, replaced incandescent bulbs with CFLs and uses solar energy to heat several kilolitres of water in pursuit of cutting down its power requirements. It plans to install a wood fired boiler to generate hot water needed for bottle cleaning, fueled by the wood wastes from the vineyard itself.

 

It is also amazing to note that the winery meets more than two-thirds of its water needs through water harvesting practices. It was estimated that 14 million liters of water was collected from the monsoon. It has additional 19 million liters of water storage system provided by numerous check dams.

 

On the never done before innovation side, there are ongoing plans to install beehives around the vineyard to encourage pollination, and the use of local goat herds to mow the alleys between the vines, weeding and fertilizing the vines with their droppings at the same time as well.

 

The company, which sold over seven million bottles in the preceding year, has 1400 out of the 1700 acres of the vineyards owned by over 250 farmers. It generates 25% of its bottles by recycling, thereby saving a couple of millions of rupees and giving direct employment to thirty village women.

 

Although traditionally wine industry is not looked at as something beautiful in a country like India, I wonder how many such beautiful caring minds power our countries' agricultural practices.

 

(I deliberately haven't included any photograph from the event so as to avoid any complications since the venue of the conference was within the premises of US Consulate.)