CHIKKAMAGALURU: Relentless rain, coupled with thunderstorms and lightning, has thrown the lives of coffee growers in Malnad region out of gear as growers have lost 30 per cent of their crops. Even black pepper, which is grown as an internal crop in coffee estates, has suffered damages. Sources said 80 per cent of the pepper vines have been affected.
Last evening, Doddamagaravalli and Chikkamagaravalli under Aldur hobli limits bore the brunt of heavy rain; coffee plants were washed away and many plantations were submerged in the rainwater. Suresh, a farmer, said that his paddy field and coffee estate were submerged due to flash floods in the nearby stream.
Planter Putta Swamy told TNIE that they have never seen such a horrifying cloud burst in recent years and elderly people said that this kind of torrential rain was experienced around 20 years ago.
Pepper vines, which grow vertically on the shade trees, are supportive sources of income for growers in the coffee plantations. These temperatures are typical in the coffee-growing regions of the Western Ghats. But heavy rain has increased the moisture, a condition affecting coffee crops.
However, Coffee Board chairman Dinesh Devarunda said that the board has identified areas in Chikkamagaluru district which have received heavy rainfall and requested the officials concerned to release Rs 52,000 per two hectares as compensation to the growers who have sustained crop loss of more than 30 per cent.