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Velankar Chafa

If you have wandered around Panhalgad during the rainy season – during Shravan – then you would have seen many Sonchafa trees blooming with golden flowers. The reason for planting these trees around Panhala is that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had resolved to offer one lakh golden flowers to Someshwar at the fort in autumn. According to that resolution, Sonchafa was planted around Panhala.

But let’s say, if you live in Mumbai-Pune, you will have a question in your mind whether it is autumn or not, how is it that the flowers of Sonchafa are available perennially in the market? Readers, this miracle of giving flowering for twelve months is because of ‘Velankar Chafa’. Now you will say Sonchafa means Sonchafa, What is different about this Velankar Chafa? So today we have brought the answer to the same question.

‘Velankar Chafa’ is a premium brand of Sonchafa. The name of the farmer who developed this brand is ‘Uday Gopinath Velankar’!! Today we are going to read the story of how the name of Velankar living in the small village of Vetal Bambarde after taking a left turn after Oros while traveling on the Mumbai-Goa highway towards kudal in Kudal taluka got connected with Sonchafa.

To order Velankar Chafa

The beginning of the brand ‘Velankar Chafa’ was like the beginning of a movie. After the death of his father in 1980, the burden of farming and horticulture fell on Udayrao’s shoulders. Meanwhile, he started a small-scale plant nursery. One day Velankar went to Ratnagiri for work. They went to a nursery there to see some new varieties on the market and whether did they have ‘sonchafa’ grafting? When such an inquiry was made, The owners of the nursery said, “At present, reliable Sonchafa graftings are not available.

A gentleman named Velankar used to supply us with quality grafting. But now they are not available, so we have stopped selling Sonchafa graftings.” he answered. Udayarao proudly said, “I am his son, Uday Velankar. He is no more. But I can definitely supply you with Sonchafa grafts”. The nursery owner placed an order for Sonchafa grafts for the next season. From here Velankar Chafa’s journey started again…

But after this, ‘Operation Sonchafa’ started in earnest. Sonchafa also has seven different varieties. Among them, orange, pale yellow, whitish white, and dark yellow are the four most commonly used types. Realizing that any perennial yielding species would certainly be of commercial use, Velankar decided to develop the ‘Dark Yellow’ variety. He started by getting his pure varieties and developing them on his farm. Within a short period of time, the variety ‘Velankar Chafa’ was born. The sale of this item in the surrounding area started with a bang. Within a few days ‘Velankar Chafa’ became a premium brand.

It doesn’t take long for a popular brand to be ‘duplicated’. Many traders started selling bogus grafts under the name of ‘Velankar Chafa’ and farmers’ complaints started to fall on deaf ears. But after this, Velankar changed his marketing strategy. He started giving grafts directly to the farmers. There were many difficulties in this endeavor.

Our production started with developing the ‘market’ of Velankar chafa grafting. Today, eight to ten thousand acres of sonchafa are cultivated in the Palghar area due to their tireless efforts. In the Pune area, too, thousands of acres of farmers produce Sonchafa. Who doesn’t want flowers that generate cash like that? At present, ten thousand graftings of Velankar are sold every year. It would not be wrong to say that many farmers get gold production from it.

Now the question that does arise is that if trees grow from chafa seeds, why take the grafting of velankar? The answer is that plants from seed only flower in autumn, not perennials. Welankara cuttings give reliable perennial flowers. Robert Dibrito, a farmer from Vasai, has grown only 280 grafting on his farm, and from it, Dibrito earns an annual income of 9 lakhs!!

Building your own brand in an agricultural product or horticultural product is a very difficult task. To take an example, take Alfonso mangoes. For many years, we used to eat grafted mangoes grown anywhere from Karnataka to Gujarat under the name ‘Hapus’ as Hapus. But authentic ‘Hapoos’ mangoes are only available in the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurga area and it took many years of penance to get the Geographical Indication (GI). So, we can only imagine how much effort Uday Gopinath Velankar had to work to get the special distinction of ‘Velankar Chafa’ among the flowering trees like Sonchafa in Konkan.

A professional agronomist may be able to do this in less time. But Uday Gopinath Velankar has no education beyond the 7th standard as he is responsible for taking care of the household agricultural work. Velankar has acquired all this knowledge not from books, but from his ‘practical approach’. Today, whether they have a broken diesel pump or a stalled car, be it plumbing-welding-carpentry work, the engineer is the same. Uday Gopinath Velankar himself!!

So the next natural question is why Velankar does not sell flowers himself instead of selling ten thousand grafting per year. The only reason for this is that the flower market is not yet developed in the area where Velankar Farm is located. After the flowers bloom, they reach the market within a few hours. Palghar, Vasai, and Pune are all around the markets like Mumbai-Pune. After the opening of the airport of ‘Chippy’, maybe the flowers of Velankar will reach the distant markets. Today, farmers from many states in the south take cuttings from them.

Currently, Velankar and his two paid workers are handling all this load. But one question that always bothers every entrepreneur is who will carry forward? Velankar can be said to be lucky in this matter. Because all three of his highly educated children are capable of carrying this legacy forward.