For Chikhli, growing mango and cane on plots that shrink with every generation.
Orchards cut into fragments
Chikhli, in Navsari district, grows mango and cane on holdings that have been divided repeatedly. Orchards are particularly awkward to divide: you cannot split a mature tree, so families end up with scattered rows, shared access and jointly owned trees.
Ownership that requires constant negotiation
Fragmented orchards force cooperation whether or not the parties are cooperative. Harvest timing, spraying, the price accepted, who arranges transport - each requires agreement among relatives who may not be speaking.
Clients describe losing money to disagreements they cannot resolve and cannot escape, because the trees are physically interleaved. It is a business problem with no commercial solution.
What the work addresses
What you control inside a shared arrangement. You cannot make a cousin reasonable. You can decide how much of your year is spent on the attempt, and whether the orchard is worth what it costs you.
Frequently the honest answer is that a small share of a contested orchard is costing more in attention than it returns, and that has never been calculated because calculating it feels like a betrayal.
Sessions
Online, in Gujarati, usually scheduled outside the mango season.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mediate a family dispute?
- No. I work with you on your decisions inside it, which is a different and often more useful thing.
- Do you work with joint family businesses?
- Yes, and the joint part is usually where the difficulty actually is.
