The farmers said that paddy had been grown on 19,000 hectares in the district. At a time when the crop has reached the harvest stage, the sudden crash in the prices has created problems for the farmers, the protestors said.

With the recent fall in areca prices, the farmers are already in distress. Their problems have been compounded by the crash in prices of paddy, they said. The farmers demanded that the government should take steps to help them.

They said that the government must announce the support price immediately and set up purchase centres for paddy. The food corporation must be asked to purchase the paddy with Rs 300 crore set aside in the budget for providing support price for the crops, in a bid to prevent farmer suicides, the protestors said.

Earlier, farmers expressed anguish by pouring the paddy grown by them into a canal nearby. Traffic on the national highway was affected as a result of the protest. The farmers later went in a procession to the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Shimoga and held a protest, led by the Gajanur unit of the Rajya Raitha Sangha.