Karnataka: Pomegranate growers too in distress

CHITRADURGA: At a time when sugarcane farmers are in distress because of delay on the part of sugar factories to pay their arrears, pomegranate growers are in dire financial straits as well because the entire crop in orchards spread over 20,000 hectares and worth about Rs 100 crores has been hit by bacterial blight.

About 70 per cent of the crop has been lost in 13 districts of north Karnataka. In Chitradurga district alone, bacterial blight has affected pomegranate in 5000 out of 8500 hectares adding to miseries of farmers. Karnataka’s output of pomegranate was about 1.70 lakh to 2 lakh tonnes till recently, but farmers got only 50 to 60,000 tonnes of the fruit this year. The crop has been hit by bacterial blight owing to climate change, unseasonal rain and other factors.

Even though pomegranate farmers are incurring huge losses, neither the state government nor the elected representatives failed to raise their voice in their favour. The Union government has not responded to their plea for waiver of their loans either.

Dr Devaraj, deputy director, horticulture department, said it would be difficult to get rid of bacterial blight at this stage. Hence, all growers should take precautionary measures to protect their crop from the disease. He, however, ruled out any compensation to these growers for losing the crop due to bacterial blight.