SOMWARPET: With slimy African snails crawling all over coffee estates in Hundli, Bellaralli and Shanivarasanthe, the coffee growers’ cup of woes is running over.While coffee growers in many parts of the district have been fac ing crop loss due to wild elephant menace and borer disease, coffee growers in Hundli, Bellaralli and Shanivarasanthe are facing bleak prospects of coffee production with African snails feasting on coffee leaves and beans.
“Thousands of African snails have been attacking coffee estates during monsoon for past three years. Nobody has a clue from where the snails come,’’ says N N Phalaksha a grower in Hundli. Somwarpete Taluk panchayat Vice President M B Abhimanyu Kumar says snail menace has destroyed about 500 hectares of coffee estates in Shanivarasanthe region. “If we do not destroy the snails, they will spread to other taluks,’’ he warns. Phalaksha informs that coffee growers are in distress due to high production costs and steep fall in prices of coffee. “Price of 50 kg of Arabica parchment coffee has slumped to `7,500,’’ he said and added that the same was priced `9,300 a year ago.
Coffee growers’ self-help groups in Hundli launched an initiative called ‘catch and kill’. Under this, Coffee Growers’ Association offered `4 for every kilo of snails caught by labourers and growers. The programme became a success as hundreds of growers with labourers caught thousands of kilos of these snails. Shanivarasanthe primary agriculture credit co operative society and another society offered Rs 10,000 to each coffee growers’ association.
Several coffee growers’ associations have managed to raise `50,000 in order to destroy snails. The caught African snails are given a decent burial. Coffee board officer Muralidhar says the burial pits should be packed with pesticides to ensure that snails are destroyed.