<p>It is close to mid-noon, at Immanuel D’Mello’s stall in Shankarapura in Udupi district. The elderly man unwraps a banana leaf and glances at the ‘information slip’ tucked into a bunch of neatly strung Shankarapura jasmine flowers. The piece of paper contains information on the number of buds and the amount to be paid to the grower, says Immanuel, popularly known as Monthu Parbhu. After picking the milky-white buds in the wee hours of the morning, growers string them together into garlands known as ‘chendus’ using fibre made from the yelakki banana plant. </p>.<p>Each chendu has 800 buds, and four chendus are combined to make an atti. </p>.<p>The use of the thin banana fibres for stringing the jasmine buds together sets Shankarapura jasmine apart from other varieties like Mysuru or Bhatkal jasmine. As devotees are forbidden from offering jasmine strung using cloth or nylon strings, Shankarapura mallige is preferred at temples in these parts, says Monthu. At noon, he gets up, crosses the road and enters the ‘mallige katte’ — a small room in a shopping complex. </p>.App-assisted tour of Bengaluru’s literary heritage.<p>Here, he takes a seat in the far corner of the room, as he has been doing for many years. Soon, other jasmine traders arrive. After brief negotiations based on supply and demand, the price of jasmine is determined for the day. “The prices of Shankarapura mallige will remain high during this month (Rs 730 to Rs 2,000 per atti), with the production of jasmine being moderate until the end of January,” says Monthu.</p>.<p>Within a few minutes of the price being determined, flower-sellers from Udupi and Mangaluru to Mumbai set their prices accordingly, with the help of ‘Udupi Mallige’, an Android application. </p>.<p>“Earlier, I used to receive information about the pricing the next morning through newspapers. By then due to steep variation in prices of jasmine, I used to face huge losses,” says Sashikala, a flower-seller from Udupi, who has been using the app for the past three years. </p>.<p>Fakirabba, owner of Master Flowers, a shop in Mangaluru, says, after getting the base rate from the Udupi Mallige app, he sets a margin of Rs 50 for Shankarapura mallige exported to Dubai. </p>.<p>The app does not merely keep the user updated about jasmine prices, says Ganesh from Karkala. He uses the ‘earnings’ and ‘calculator’ features on the app to calculate his losses and profits earned from selling jasmine. “Without the app, this would have been difficult to account for, due to daily fluctuations in flower pricing,” he says. </p>.<p>“Udupi Mallige provides information in both Kannada and English on how to nurture jasmine plants and get more yield. Growers can store information on the quantity of flowers picked and generate earning reports. It also includes contact numbers of nurseries, sellers and fertiliser suppliers,” says Subash, a grower from Udupi. </p>.<p>“The app was launched in 2019 and has more than 18,000 daily users,” says Punith Bandodekar, one of the developers of the app. </p>.<p>Punith hails from a family of jasmine cultivators in Pernankila in Udupi taluk. During his MCA, he developed an interest in using technology to solve problems faced by jasmine growers, sellers and buyers. After learning mobile app development, he first attempted to digitise data of growers and agents who sell jasmine to the katte on an app. When the agents did not show interest, he began tracking prices of jasmine across Udupi district.</p>.<p>“I used to upload details on the prices of jasmine as published in newspapers. Soon, the Google Play Store was flooded with positive feedback from users,” he says. Overwhelmed by how the app was useful to so many, Punith sought the help of friends, Akshath and Rohith, to add more features and improve the app’s reliability. The app began informing users about prices of jasmine, minutes after it was decided at the <em>katte</em>, with the help of the Udupi Mallige Belagarara Sangha. </p>.<p>For the past five years, the team has continued to develop new features whenever possible, ensuring that the app stays updated with the latest tech to support newer Android versions. “We believe that focussing on Udupi mallige cultivation and providing comprehensive data can greatly benefit small and medium-scale growers, sellers and buyers, as it serves as a significant source of income for many,” Punith says.</p>.<p>Harish G Joshi, coordinator of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, says that online access to prices of jasmine will increase price transparency. Joshi has been studying the jasmine market in Udupi since 2016. He says: “The app will soon facilitate the buying and selling of jasmine online.”</p>.<p><strong>About the variety</strong></p>.<p>Udupi jasmine or Shankarapura 'mallige' can be traced back to the 1930s. It is said that Father Basil Salvadore Peris, appointed as a parish priest in 1934, had a hunch that jasmine plants would thrive in laterite soil found in the Shankarapura region. Soon, jasmine saplings were procured from Bhatkal and grown in and around Shankarapura. Thereafter, the production and sale of jasmine flowers helped alleviate extreme poverty in as many as six villages, says Monthu Parbhu, who has been in the jasmine trade for 55 years. Father Basil set up the 'katte' system in the 1940s. The pricing model has stood the test of time, says Harish Joshi. Due to its solid reputation, growers, buyers and sellers are hesitant to accept any changes. Today jasmine production is spread over 1,167 hectares in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, generating a total revenue of Rs 12.09 crore, according to officials in the horticulture department.</p>.<p><strong>Exclusive app</strong></p>.<p>Shankarpura 'mallige' earned a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2007. Among 48 products GI tagged in Karnataka, only Udupi jasmine has an exclusive app, according to sources at the Visvesvaraya Trade Promotion Centre (VTPC). An app was developed for ‘mattu gulla’, a GI-tagged brinjal variety from Udupi. As maintaining the app was difficult, it was shut down.</p>
<p>It is close to mid-noon, at Immanuel D’Mello’s stall in Shankarapura in Udupi district. The elderly man unwraps a banana leaf and glances at the ‘information slip’ tucked into a bunch of neatly strung Shankarapura jasmine flowers. The piece of paper contains information on the number of buds and the amount to be paid to the grower, says Immanuel, popularly known as Monthu Parbhu. After picking the milky-white buds in the wee hours of the morning, growers string them together into garlands known as ‘chendus’ using fibre made from the yelakki banana plant. </p>.<p>Each chendu has 800 buds, and four chendus are combined to make an atti. </p>.<p>The use of the thin banana fibres for stringing the jasmine buds together sets Shankarapura jasmine apart from other varieties like Mysuru or Bhatkal jasmine. As devotees are forbidden from offering jasmine strung using cloth or nylon strings, Shankarapura mallige is preferred at temples in these parts, says Monthu. At noon, he gets up, crosses the road and enters the ‘mallige katte’ — a small room in a shopping complex. </p>.App-assisted tour of Bengaluru’s literary heritage.<p>Here, he takes a seat in the far corner of the room, as he has been doing for many years. Soon, other jasmine traders arrive. After brief negotiations based on supply and demand, the price of jasmine is determined for the day. “The prices of Shankarapura mallige will remain high during this month (Rs 730 to Rs 2,000 per atti), with the production of jasmine being moderate until the end of January,” says Monthu.</p>.<p>Within a few minutes of the price being determined, flower-sellers from Udupi and Mangaluru to Mumbai set their prices accordingly, with the help of ‘Udupi Mallige’, an Android application. </p>.<p>“Earlier, I used to receive information about the pricing the next morning through newspapers. By then due to steep variation in prices of jasmine, I used to face huge losses,” says Sashikala, a flower-seller from Udupi, who has been using the app for the past three years. </p>.<p>Fakirabba, owner of Master Flowers, a shop in Mangaluru, says, after getting the base rate from the Udupi Mallige app, he sets a margin of Rs 50 for Shankarapura mallige exported to Dubai. </p>.<p>The app does not merely keep the user updated about jasmine prices, says Ganesh from Karkala. He uses the ‘earnings’ and ‘calculator’ features on the app to calculate his losses and profits earned from selling jasmine. “Without the app, this would have been difficult to account for, due to daily fluctuations in flower pricing,” he says. </p>.<p>“Udupi Mallige provides information in both Kannada and English on how to nurture jasmine plants and get more yield. Growers can store information on the quantity of flowers picked and generate earning reports. It also includes contact numbers of nurseries, sellers and fertiliser suppliers,” says Subash, a grower from Udupi. </p>.<p>“The app was launched in 2019 and has more than 18,000 daily users,” says Punith Bandodekar, one of the developers of the app. </p>.<p>Punith hails from a family of jasmine cultivators in Pernankila in Udupi taluk. During his MCA, he developed an interest in using technology to solve problems faced by jasmine growers, sellers and buyers. After learning mobile app development, he first attempted to digitise data of growers and agents who sell jasmine to the katte on an app. When the agents did not show interest, he began tracking prices of jasmine across Udupi district.</p>.<p>“I used to upload details on the prices of jasmine as published in newspapers. Soon, the Google Play Store was flooded with positive feedback from users,” he says. Overwhelmed by how the app was useful to so many, Punith sought the help of friends, Akshath and Rohith, to add more features and improve the app’s reliability. The app began informing users about prices of jasmine, minutes after it was decided at the <em>katte</em>, with the help of the Udupi Mallige Belagarara Sangha. </p>.<p>For the past five years, the team has continued to develop new features whenever possible, ensuring that the app stays updated with the latest tech to support newer Android versions. “We believe that focussing on Udupi mallige cultivation and providing comprehensive data can greatly benefit small and medium-scale growers, sellers and buyers, as it serves as a significant source of income for many,” Punith says.</p>.<p>Harish G Joshi, coordinator of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, says that online access to prices of jasmine will increase price transparency. Joshi has been studying the jasmine market in Udupi since 2016. He says: “The app will soon facilitate the buying and selling of jasmine online.”</p>.<p><strong>About the variety</strong></p>.<p>Udupi jasmine or Shankarapura 'mallige' can be traced back to the 1930s. It is said that Father Basil Salvadore Peris, appointed as a parish priest in 1934, had a hunch that jasmine plants would thrive in laterite soil found in the Shankarapura region. Soon, jasmine saplings were procured from Bhatkal and grown in and around Shankarapura. Thereafter, the production and sale of jasmine flowers helped alleviate extreme poverty in as many as six villages, says Monthu Parbhu, who has been in the jasmine trade for 55 years. Father Basil set up the 'katte' system in the 1940s. The pricing model has stood the test of time, says Harish Joshi. Due to its solid reputation, growers, buyers and sellers are hesitant to accept any changes. Today jasmine production is spread over 1,167 hectares in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, generating a total revenue of Rs 12.09 crore, according to officials in the horticulture department.</p>.<p><strong>Exclusive app</strong></p>.<p>Shankarpura 'mallige' earned a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2007. Among 48 products GI tagged in Karnataka, only Udupi jasmine has an exclusive app, according to sources at the Visvesvaraya Trade Promotion Centre (VTPC). An app was developed for ‘mattu gulla’, a GI-tagged brinjal variety from Udupi. As maintaining the app was difficult, it was shut down.</p>