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Karnataka has suffered from grave consequences of erratic weather conditions and unconventional rainfall, resulting in massive crop loss and damage.
According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Center (KSNDMC) the state incurred a loss of Rs 7,467 crore during the monsoon season, of which agricultural and horticultural crops on 5.74 lakh hectares of land worth Rs 3,569 crore were completely damaged across the state.
Apart from witnessing irregular and heavy rainfall, climate change has also brought with it dangerous pathogens that threaten to wipe out 70 percent of the arecanut plantations in Karnataka’s Malnad region.
Identified as 'Blast Disease,' this plant infection is caused by an air-borne fungus, that attacks the leaves of the arecanut plant. The Quint spoke to the farmers in Chikkamangaluru, Dakshina Kannada and Shivamogga to find out how they are coping with this new disease, which the government is yet to fully understand.
Scientists Belur S Kumudini and her team, who studied blast disease in paddy, have diagnosed that this disease is caused by the fungus called Pyricularia oryzae.
The blast disease first reported in West Africa’s Sierra Leone in 1930. In India, the fungus started occurring in every rice growing region where humidity was said to be high. By 1959, the damage to rice crops was as high as 78 percent.
In the last one decade, apart from affecting paddy fields, the air-borne fungus also started attacking other plants such as arecanut, which are grown in areas where the rainfall and humidity levels are very high.
Satisha Jain, a farmer in Chikkamangaluru's Koppa, developed arecanut plantation eight years ago in his one acre land. After a period of five years, Satish was lucky to get good yield of 10 quintals of red arecanut in 2021. However, this year the farmer and other cultivators in the region are suffering a huge loss due to yellow leaf and blast diseases.
In an interaction with The Quint, Satisha explained the difference between the two and how a combination of both the plant infections could be deadly to the entire plantation itself.
According to the Arecanut Research and Development Foundation, the cultivation of this commercial crop is the economic backbone of nearly 16 million people in the country.
Karnataka which tops arecanut cultivation in comparison to other states such as Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Assam, has suffered a loss of over 25 percent due to unseasonal and above-average rainfall in 2022.
Reacting to the wide-spread plant disease that is resulting in severe crop loss, union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar and MP from Udupi-Chikkamangaluru Shobha Karandlje announced a new initiative of providing chemical sprays to help arecanut cultivators in October 2022.
While, the union and state governments fund two research centres for the management of plantation crop diseases in the Malnad region and two other centres in Udupi and Uttara Kannada, very little efforts have been made to treat these plant diseases.
"The government is not doing enough to find out more about the blast disease. Unlike the yellow leaf disease, the effects of blast fungus is rapid and has the potential to wipe out hectares of plantation within weeks. I have already suffered loss of Rs 7 lakh this year. We are planning to meet with the chief minister and raise our concerns during his visit to Sringeri", added Nellithaya.
Arecanut is usually cultivated in regions where rainfall is high and water facility is in plenty. However, with increasing negative effects of climate change and excessive rainfall this year, environmentalist and farmer Dr Vittal Hegde Kalukuli, observed that the only way to tackle this disease was to ensure that climate crisis is addressed at its root.
Speaking to The Quint from Sringeri, Dr Hegde said:
There are also studies being conducted to understand the changes in rainfall patterns, intense heatwaves, drought and floods that contribute significantly to the spread of infectious diseases among plants. However, the Government of Karnataka is yet to fully understand how to treat these pathogens that rising in number due to natural causes.
In an attempt to solve the growing problem of arecanut crop damage minister Araga Jnanendra and BS Yediyurappa son BY Vijayeendra visited farmers in Shivammogga and promised them of establishing a scientist panel to carryout the research about the fungus and assess the extent of damage in Dakshina Kannada, Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada and Udupi.
However, when The Quint reached out to officers in the agriculture and horticulture department, to find out how the government planned on taking the new disease, no response was given.
With rains continuing to lash irregularly in Karnataka even in 2022, farmers are scared that the blast disease might turn into a major biological crisis, destabilising the import-export trade of arecanuts.
As of now, the approximate cost of arecanut cultivation is Rs 250 per kg. However with the cultivation cost rising by 30%, farmers have to now spend at least Rs 350 per kg.
So in order to retain their relevance in the market, cultivators have also appealed to the union government, asking them to increase the import price value which is fixed at Rs 251 by 15%, in order to discourage companies from buying low quality arecanut from foreign nations like Indonesia, Myanmmar and Bangaldesh.
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