Shankarapura Jasmine introduced into Geographical Indication list

Shankarapura Jasmine introduced into Geographical Indication list

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, November 6: The internationally acclaimed Shankarapura jasmine is now in the Geographical Indication (GI) list thanks to a campaign launched by Andrew Lobo, a progressive farmer of Shankarapura, a few years back, in a bid to protect the interests of jasmine-growers in the locality. His efforts to establish a separate identity for Shankarapura jasmine and show it as something distinct from Udupi jasmine have finally borne fruit.

 

Regional products are included in the GI list after first confirming that they can be produced only in a certain geographical location owing to its soil and climate. The Centre for International Trade in Agriculture and Agro-based Industries (CITA) in Pune, a quasi-government body affiliated to the union government took up the case of Shankarapura jasmine at the international level owing to Lobo’s efforts through the Bangalore-based directorate at the horticulture department.

The campaign encouraged Bushan Karandikar, the advisor to CITA, to meet the deputy director of agriculture in Udupi and study the jasmine trade there. In collaboration with the Bharatiya Vikas Trust of Manipal, she visited Andrew Lobo’s jasmine farm and other farms in Shankarapura and its neighboring regions. After a 15-day study, during which she met more than 15 jasmine growers, she submitted her report. As a result, the jasmine variety has now been included in the GI list.
 

This means that no outsider can grow Shankarapura jasmine in their land and say it is their own. The variety also cannot be patented by anybody else, state horticulture department sources.