Sullia: Agriculture in India is a gamble with monsoon. To understand this statement, one may have to take a trip to Sullia, where the lush green plantations today stand as mute testimony to the gamble!
The severe drought across the state has hit the agriculture putting lakhs and lakhs of farmers in dire straits.
The rising temperature and the water scarcity has forced the agriculturists to stop watering their plants and the areca growers in Sullia are no different.
With drinking water being a priority, these growers hardly have any water left for irrigating their plantations.
Result is that the healthy green plantations are turning yellow, with fruits gradually withering away.
The situation of Puttur and Belthangady taluk too has been the same.
Most of the farmers and growers have stopped watering the plants since a month now.
The buds of areca are seen lying on the ground and the growers who have planted areca on hectares of land can only mourn over the losses.
The temperature in the region has touched 40 degrees- conveniently an all time high.
While, for a few weeks the growers had watered the plantation using bore well water, when drinking water became a rare commodity, they opted to stop using the water for irrigation.
Other than arecanut, coconut, pepper, banana and cocoa plantations have also been affected by the drought along with cashew and rubber.
The drought has taken away the sweet smell of mangoes, vegetables and other fruits too.
The water beds of river Nethravathi, Payaswini and Kumaradhara have dried up putting lives of people from the region into trouble who are solely dependent on agriculture.
Akhila Bharath Areca Growers’ Association Convener A D Vijaykumar speaking to newskarnataka.com said that due to severe drought the agriculturists have been forced to stop watering their plantations. When there is no water to drink, it is impossible to use water for agriculture.
Shekhara Madthila, an agriculturist from Ivarnadu said, “We have stopped watering our plants for the last one and half months. The areca trees have dried up and we have no hope of getting good yields next year.”
Gazing at the skies with a prayer on their lips, these growers only hope for an immediate date with the rains.
