Marching to the beat of a different drum(stick)

‘‘I have learnt to be very prompt,’’ the wiry farmer says. ‘‘In the initial days we delayed replying to a mail from China and they were very upset about it. We almost lost them as clients. Now I don’t make that mistake and reply to each mail within 24 hours.’’

Between replying to e-mails from Taiwan regarding seed availability, from Malaysia on the demand for oil and queries on commercial viability from Vadodara and Udmalpet (in Tamil Nadu), Marale spends endless hours trying to convince farmers of Sinnar that drumstick farming is the in-thing in the agro world.

An operator in a private firm in Pune, Marale first got hooked to drumsticks when he visited a local mandi. ‘‘I had seen small drumsticks but at the mandi I saw really big ones, which had been brought all the way from Tamil Nadu. I was very curious and spent time with the traders to know more about it.’’

For the next few years, every vacation, Marale travelled down south to study drumstick farming. From Chennai to Coimbatore and the Dharwad Agriculture University, he went everywhere that the drumstick beckoned.

‘‘I came back with a wealth of information, including the fact that in the drier parts of Maharashtra, the drumstick would yield great wealth,’’ Marale explains.

So after seven years of experimenting with different varieties of drumsticks in his own 10-acre plot, Marale penned down all his ‘‘grassroot knowledge’’ in a book and started looking for ways to get more people interested in the crop.

Drumstick Cultivation and Technology found its way into the hands of a software firm owner. ‘‘After I finished reading his book and was exploring the option of drumstick farming myself, I met Marale and realised he wanted to share his experiences with as many people as possible,’’ says Anurag Kenge, owner of Cybertech Network Pvt Ltd. ‘‘Also he was looking at exporting his produce. Doing it on the Internet seemed like the shortest route out.’’

The two put their heads together and created http://www.drumsticksindia.com, a one-stop portal on all there is to know about the drumstick. From botanical information to recipes, the website has it all.

‘‘The idea was to help Marale take his knowledge everywhere,’’ explains Kenge. ‘‘We wanted everything in one place so that interested people could get all the information they needed.’’

So while Marale dictated his experience of growing drumsticks, Kenge’s wife Manjiri compiled recipes, some from her own kitchen. Then computer whizes at Kenge’s Cybertech Network designed the website.

‘‘The response has been tremendous,’’ Marale says. ‘‘Within a year 50 people have written to us on specific aspects of drumsticks and thousands have visited the site out of curiosity.’’

In his attempt to deal with the world market, Marale pushed the limits, financing his entire project through bank loans. ‘‘My father and the rest of the village thought I was crazy, giving up a secure job and cultivating drumsticks,’’ Marale recalls. ‘‘But when I made my first profit of Rs 40,000 just a year after I started, they were so proud of me.’’

Marale says that one acre of land will yield an average three tonnes of drumstick, which at present sells for Rs 20/kg.

Today, Marale has motivated 25 people to farm together on 40 acres of land.