Vithal Nivrutti Thorat (76), who had studied up to class-XI only, has been involved in grape cultivation since last five decades. He has developed a grape variety “Nath Jumbo Seedless” having large bunches, good sugar content in berries and better shelf life.

Shri Vithal Nivrutti Thorat has developed this variety from Sharad Seedless variety through mass selection followed by grafting at his orchard. He identified three distinct grapes vines which had big sized berries, more number of berries and larger length of bunch in his plantation of Sharad Seedless variety in 1997. The selected bunches of grapes produced from selected vines fetched two-fold higher market price than the parent variety. He tagged the unique vines and multiplied them through grafting over root stocks of dog ridge grapes variety and observed the continuity for next 5 years for character stabilization. In year 2007, he planted only this new variety in one-acre of land and named the new variety as “Nath Jumbo Seedless”. Thereafter, he multiplied the graftings for developing an orchard of 4 acres in 2011. Subsequently, saplings of the variety were distributed to fellow farmers of surrounding areas for cultivation.

The variety takes 125-130 days to mature, produces extra-long and bold berries (40 x 24 mm) with superior sugar content and higher bunch weight and yield, has shelf life of over three months and is preferred for export and fetches good market price due to elongated berry length and taste. Facilitated by NIF- India, the on-site evaluation done by the experts of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Narayangaon, Pune confirmed the distinct characters of the variety and reported that the variety fetches 25 to 40% more price in market and is being successfully exported to European and Asian countries due to its better shelf life. The variety has been distributed to the grapes growers of Pune, Nashik, Sangli, Solapur, Baramati, Junnar areas covering over 1000 acres in Maharashtra state. The application for registration of the variety at PPV & FRA, New Delhi has been filed by NIF - India.