Arecanut growers in distress

2,500 acre of areca plantations destroyed by yellow leaf disease

In the name of research and survey, government tried to pacify the growers for the last two years.

However, nobody has tried to understand the difficulties being faced by the growers. The arecanut growers in Haralane, Ganjugudige, Arehalla, Bairedevaru, Agalagandi, Bhuvanakote, Kalkere, Karimane, Untuvalli, Somlapura, Andagaru are in distress.

Arecanut was considered as ‘golden crop’ once. However, the steep fall in the price of arecanut affected growers badly in the last few years.

Growers are not in a position to pay back the loans borrowed from various financial institutions.

Shivananda, grower in Untuvalli has been growing arecanut for the past three decades. He said “We were growing 50 quintal arecanut during the days of my grandfather.

Later, it declined to 30 quintals during my father’s period. Now we get only 3 quintals. The yield has declined in the last 15 years. We were providing shelter to 10 agriculture labourers. Now we are not in a position to take care of one family.”

“Arecanut leaves turn yellow and get spots over it. The size of arecanut reduces drastically. We have followed the directions given by the experts to control the disease. But all the efforts are in vain,” says growers.