JOIN USJust a week ago, it seemed like the crops would fetch profits in lakhs, but now there’s nothing left on these fields at Gadag.
Thousands of rupees of invested in growing groundnut, onion, maize, sunflower and chilly –– crops that were expected to ensure high returns –– has been washed away in the rains. Kharif crops grown in about 90,000 hectare of land has been destroyed in the district.
In the past 10 years, farmers in the region have managed a good harvest in two years, that is, in 2001 and 2005 only. In the remaining years, they were faced with drought situation six times and twice with flood (2007, 2009). Needless to say that this has left the farmers questioning their means of survival. “If the rains were delayed by just two days, I would have finished harvesting the groundnuts grown in my field. But because of the continuous rains for a whole week, the groundnuts have sprouted,” lamented Erappa Manikyanavar from Da Sa Hadagali village, who was getting the sprouted groundnuts removed from his field.
Similarly onions, which would have fetched a price of Rs 1,500 a quintal within two weeks, are decaying in several hectare of lands.
At least 75 per cent of the families in these villages, who are solely dependent on agriculture for their living, are left in dire straits yet again.