About Kalifornia30 Farms in At Post-Talavade, Gadgewadi, Savantvadi

Sumit Bhosle – Kalifornia30 Farms
After having lived in Mumbai for almost 25 years and also working with a media giant for 5 years out of that, I had already decided to make my way out of the immensely busy and fast paced lifestyle. And as opportunity called out, I quickly grabbed it. A substantial piece of land in Konkan, keen interest for animal husbandry and lastly but most importantly my wife’s approval and whole hearted willingness to shift out of Mumbai, set the base for our dream project – Kalifornia30 Goat Farms.
Goat Farming – as such, was never been looked upon as a serious agri-activity, let alone a full time option in Konkan. As in our initial research, heavy rainfall and health problems because of the same, was the main reason that people apprehended from getting into goat farming. But at the same time, our research also revealed that the blooming tourism industry in Konkan (ample demand for mutton) and a substantial Muslim population (Bakri Eid) were the two main factors that led me to believe that, if done properly goat farming can be a very lucrative and also a sustainable form of business.
Its been almost 4.5 years that we have started Kalifornia30 Goat Farms, in Talavade, Sawantwadi. Our specialty being Sirohi goats from Rajasthan mainly selected for their rapid weight gain, higher twinning percentage and very attractive colour combinations. These factors make them the best candidates for Eid purpose marketing. We had a successful first Bakri Eid in September 2015, where we surpassed our sale targets. There is also a steady outflow of goats for breeding purpose from our farm for a number of new and upcoming goat farmers in the region. We have now ventured in two more breeds namely Sojat and African Boer and are currently working for getting the goats acclimatized and studying their weight gain patterns.
Mangoes – As mentioned, our farm is essentially a mango orchard with almost 180 full-grown Alphonso Mango trees. As we can see there is a huge demand Alphonso mangoes during the summers and accordingly there is a heavy influx of mangoes, not only from the Konkan region but almost the entire south-western coastal belt of the country. With personal experience in Mumbai-we already knew that there is a lot counterfeiting of Alphonso mangoes in Mumbai and plus recently the use of chemicals in the ripening process has also increased a lot. These chemicals used for ripening are considered to be carcinogenic and are extremely harmful to our health. As a response to this deadly procedure, we decided to provide absolute chemical free mangoes to people in Mumbai and hence started a direct Farm-to-Customer service for Alphonso mangoes starting in 2015. Because of the natural (but time-consuming) ripening process that we employ, our mangoes have a unique and the quintessential mango taste that a lot of our clients are fond of. There are some clients from last year, who had actually not eaten any mangoes this season and were waiting only for our mangoes to get ready. That is how much they like it!