In short: MM Rooted Ventures grows on land that's been farmed by the same family for three generations. Our grandfather, the late V. Ramar, introduced Panneer grape cultivation on this land over 40 years ago. Our father has farmed it for more than 20. The company is new; the land and the knowledge behind it are not.
Where it started
The farm sits at Odaipatti, in Theni district's Cumbum valley — registered under Patta No. 4773, Survey No. 378/1A, originally in the name of our grandfather, the late V. Ramar. He was the one who first planted Panneer grapevines on this land more than four decades ago, at a time when the GI tag that now protects this variety didn't yet exist. He farmed by instinct and experience, the way most of the valley's growers did and still do.
What our father carried forward
Our father has farmed this same land for over 20 years, working across the farm's four acres in rotation — four plots, each on a roughly 120-day growing cycle, giving two to three harvests a year. The sun-drying method we still use today, with no added sulphur, is the same method passed down through that time, refined but not replaced.
What's different now
What MM Rooted Ventures adds isn't a new way of growing the grape — it's a way of presenting, processing and reaching customers for what was already being grown well. UDYAM registration, a proper FSSAI application, a real brand, direct-to-customer ordering over WhatsApp, and now a digital platform (MM AgroFlow) to run all of it — these are things a single farming family wouldn't typically build on their own, layered on top of farming practice that's three generations deep.
The short answer
This company is young. The farm, the land, and the knowledge of how to grow and dry a Panneer grape properly are not — they go back to a grandfather who planted the first vines, and a father who kept farming them for twenty years after that.