Rains destroyed the crop on vast tracts of land in Chikkamagaluru district

Farmers of Kadur and Tarikere taluks in Chikkamgaluru district, who were expecting good returns from their onion crop, have suffered huge loss due to heavy rains that lashed the area last week. The downpour swept away the crops on vast tracts of land, leaving the farmers in tears.

Several parts of the two taluks received heavy rains on October 21 and 22. Many water bodies overflowed. Vast tracts of agriculture and horticulture fields were inundated.

According to the Horticulture Department, onion was cultivated on 5,306 ha of Tarikere and 806 ha of Kadur taluks. Of that, the crop in 2,561 ha was lost in the rains. The extent of loss in Tarikere was the highest as crop cultivated on 2,500 ha was affected.

Rangaswamy, a resident of Hanne village (Attimagge panchayat) in Tarikere taluk, said many in his village lost their onion crop. “Many fields are flooded. We were expecting at least 100 bags of onions from an acre. Even if a 50-kg bag sold at ₹1,000, we would have got ₹1 lakh per acre. But, now it has become difficult to harvest the yield, forget selling it in the market,” he said.

Given the rates prevailing in the open market, they were all expecting up to ₹50 a kg. Now they are not sure of even recovering what they spent on seeds, fertilizers, and labour.

A.B. Sanjay, Deputy Director of Horticulture, told The Hindu that around 50% to 60% of the farmers had harvested the crop, but those who hadn’t have suffered loss.

“We have rough figures on the loss based on preliminary reports. The survey to assess the actual loss has begun. We will submit the report to the State government once the survey is complete,” he said. The State government has announced ₹23,500 per ha as relief to farmers.