SHIVAMOGGA: A delegation of BJP leaders led by former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa met Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in New Delhi on Wednesday requesting the Centre to depute a team to study the leaf spot disease affecting areca crops in Karnataka.
They also demanded a financial package for the affected growers. Home Minister Araga Jnanedra, MP BY Raghavendra and Sagar MLA Haratalu Halappa were part of the delegation. Yediyurappa said, in his memorandum to the minister, that Karnataka is the largest grower of arecanut in the country and contributes for 68% of the total cultivation area and 80% of the total arecanut production in the country.
He said that arecanut is being cultivated in an area of 5.02 lakh hectares in the state and more than five million people are dependent on the crop. In Shivamogga district, an area of 1.02 lakh hectares is used for the cultivation of arecanut. Arecanut production contributes for over 60% of the economy of the district. Changes in climatic conditions have favoured diseases like leaf spot, fruit rot, Ganoderama wilt etc., and this has caused a considerable loss in the yield.
The severity of the disease is due to continuous rainfall, which has washed away soil nutrients. Farmers and arecanut growers in many districts have been facing economic distress, and a farmer also committed suicide recently.