Sullia: Areca plantations in the coastal districts are experiencing the vagaries of weather with raw areca pods withering away like dry leaves in early stages of growth and the fruit rot disease is taking a toll on the yield, leaving farmers high and dry.
Karnataka experienced extremities in weather with a drought-like situation during summer and moderate to heavy rainfall now. Areca plants are not able to withstand the sudden changes in the weather, result of which areca is withering before ripening. The common disease which affects areca plantations the most has further made farmers anxious resulting in reduced crop output estimated around 40 per cent.
The farmers have been unable to spray pesticides due to unavailability of labor. Only a few growers could manage to spray copper Sulphate fluid on areca nut bunches this time. Areca nut plantations are spread across 2.3 lakh hectares in major areca growing districts. The fluid had to be sprayed thrice — before the onset of the monsoon, just after the commencement of monsoon and about a month after the second spray to prevent rotting of tender areca nuts. Dakshina Kannada has experienced the brunt of the problem associated with fruit rot disease in the last two years with Sullia taluk alone accounting to 90 per cent of the total crop losses. Just like clouds hover around to destroy good yield, the diseases and variation in weather are hovering around farmers’ efforts leaving them worried.
Changes in weather conditions multiply farmer’s problems
There isn’t any need to explain through a lecture or through an excellent article or through a live video presentation the ill effects of global warming as the people in the region have experienced the problems themselves. Streams and rivers dried up, ground water levels depleted and people turned to age old pots and lined up to collect rationed water. Areca palms started withering due to extreme heat wave conditions during summer and continue to wither with uneven rainfall.
The heat-rain combo has spread its tentacles with 40 per cent loses according to areca grower Bhaskar Rai Konangeri and the plight of the tender plants can be related to crawling children on the lookout for missing mother!
Another areca grower MD Vijay Kumar from Madappadi eliciting similar views says, the changes in weather conditions is adding to spread of the disease and has no clues on how to counter the problem.
Acting senior deputy director of government agriculture department, Suhana felt that the disease can be overcome if the pesticides are spayed thrice and cautioned the farmers to use precautionary measures during difficult times where they have no control of their own to overcome problems.
With CAMPCO exporting processed tender areca nut to China using which the Chinese plan to make mouth fresheners on one side and Gujrathi brethren taking a special liking for areca grown from the region, growers wonder if the yield would be sufficient to feed paan lovers across the country.
