A month ago their worry was drought, now it’s excess moisture that could destroy crops; Coffee Board officials begin field survey to assess destruction caused by rain

Farmers in Malnad region, who expected a drop in yield owing to deficient rainfall a month ago, are now worried that they will lose their entire crop following heavy downpour. Growers of both short-term and plantation crops have been hit by the recent rains that have flooded vast agriculture areas.

Uppermost in the minds of farmers are diseases infecting their crops. Arecanut is cultivated on 52,000 hectares of land in Shivamogga. The palms get infected with fruit rot disease or kole roga, a fungal infection brought on by excess moisture in the air.

A mix of copper sulphate and lime, locally known as mailututha, is sprayed on the palms once in 45 days during monsoon, from the third week of June, to avoid the fungus. Purushotham, who has a four-acre arecanut farm in Konandur Gram Panchayat limits in Tirthahalli taluk, told The Hindu that owing to heavy rain in the past 10 days, farmers here have not been able to take up the second round of spraying. This has resulted in fall of tender nuts and flowers owing to kole roga. He had suffered yield loss of up to 30% last year owing to moisture stress caused by scarcity of rain, but this time it would be loss from kole roga.

The weather has also made ginger crop vulnerable to soft rot disease. Ginger is cultivated on 5,500 hectares of land in the district. Eshwar’s ginger crop on two acres of land in Esur Gram Panchayat limits is waterlogged and has begun to rot. “As price of ginger had escalated recently, I opted for it expecting handsome returns. However, my hopes have been dashed by soft rot disease,” he rued.

H.R. Yogesh, Deputy Director, Department of Horticulture, told The Hindu that kole roga in arecanut crop has been reported from Tirthahalli and Hosanagar taluks, and soft rot disease in ginger from Sagar and Shikaripur taluks.

The Coffee Board officials have begun a field survey to assess destruction caused by the rains. Even as the team was visiting parts of Arehalli in Belur on Thursday, the heavy downpour stopped them in their tracks. Many planters have complained that the tanks in the estates are overflowing, causing flooding. “High moisture content can damage coffee plants; forget the yield this year,” said U.M. Thirthamallesh, president of the Karnataka Growers’ Federation. In the last six days alone, some villages in parts of Belur have received over 700 mm of rainfall. The farmers are finding it difficult to safeguard their plants.

Gudde Gowda, joint director of the Coffee Board, told The Hindu, “We have started visiting affected areas. Many tanks have breached causing water stagnation in the estates. Later, we will send teams to assess the damage.”

Rainwater has brought a huge amount of silt to many paddy fields, and farmers are losing hope of any yield. Officials of the Horticulture and Agriculture Departments are yet to make an assessment of the crops destroyed.