MANGALURU: After a gap of five years, kole roga or fruit rot disease has dealt a big blow to arecanut plantations in coastal and Malnad districts that account for more than 90 per cent of the total crop area of nearly 2 lakh hectares in Karnataka.
According to experts, the disease has brought down the yield by anywhere between 30 and 70 per cent as farmers couldn’t spray copper sulphate and lime mixture solution to check the menace due to the continuous rainfall.
There are hardly any plantations in these regions that are free of this disease. The otherwise lush green plantations in Sullia, Belthangady, Puttur and Bantwal taluks of Dakshina Kannada district and Thirthahalli of Shivamogga district cut a sorry figure this harvest season, with hardly a handful of nuts hanging in bunches, and the crowns missing from many trees.
While the yield is meagre, about 10 per cent of the arecanut plants have died of kole roga or the strong winds that blew in the region during the monsoon. Worse, the farmers are not hopeful that compensation from the state will help them offset the losses.
In Dakshina Kannada district alone — which has the highest area (35,000 hectares) under arecanut cultivation in the state — over 56,000 growers have submitted applications seeking relief for the loss. According to NDRF guidelines, the total compensation has been pegged at Rs 60 crore. But a majority of the growers are not hopeful of any kind of relief from the government, given the bitter experiences of the past.
“The relief will not be available and it is not worth for us to waste 2-3 days to visit government offices to apply for it. The system is not proper. Some people get it while some others don’t,” said Manchi Srinivas Achar, president of the All India Arecanut Growers’ Association, Puttur.
The compensation of Rs 2.50 given per dead plant is nothing but peanuts, the farmers say. “We have to spend more than Rs 100 just to remove the stem from the ground. The compensation is just an eyewash,” says Seetharam Bhat, a farmer from Uruval of Belthangady taluk.
Pointing out that the economics theory of demand and supply does not apply to arecanut, Achar said that though the produce is set to be less because of low yield, the farmers are not hopeful of any rise in prices from the present Rs 230 (new arecanut) and Rs 270 (old arecanut) per kg.
Sources said arecanut growers are also being hit by imports. Though the Centre fixed a Minimum Import Price some time back, it has not extended the expected help to the local farmers.
How the disease strikes
Arecanut plants have to be sprayed with copper sulphate and lime mixture solution once in 30 days to keep the kole roga disease at bay. But due to continuous rain this year, farmers could not spray the solution on time during July-August.
The fruit bunch needs to be dry for spraying, and weather conditions should remain dry for at least 30 minutes afterwards. Farmers could not carry out the activity this year also because of acute shortage of tree-climbing labourers. After the nuts are hit by the disease, they stop growing and fall.