Karnataka   

Unseasonable rain hits groundnut crop

SORTING: People cleaning groundnuts at Mannur-Padukere village in Udupi district.

Mannur-Padukere (Udupi district): Groundnut farmers in Udupi district are distraught, with unseasonable rain last week damaging their crop. Groundnut is grown on about 2,100 hectares in Udupi and Kundapur taluks of the district, according to the Department of Agriculture.

One of the affected farmers, Ramesh Poojary, grows groundnuts on two acres at Mannur-Padukere village, 28 km from Udupi. “I get about 11 quintals an acre. The cost of seeds, organic fertilizer and labour works out to about Rs. 10,000 an acre. We need about 60 kg seeds for an acre. Groundnut takes 90 days to grow after sowing.”

Mr. Poojary said that in last year, the initial price of groundnut was Rs. 2,200 a quintal. “I stored groundnuts and in June 2007 and I got Rs. 3,000 a quintal. Now the rate of groundnut is Rs. 2,400 a quintal. But the unseasonable rain has destroyed half my crop.”

Bhaskar Shetty, who grows groundnuts on 1.75 acres, said that he had lost his groundnut crop grown on one acre. “Owing to unseasonable rain, the taste and colour of groundnuts change. We use the groundnut pods as fodder for cattle. But they have become black. When groundnuts become wet, we have to dry them. But there is lack of space to dry them. If we store wet groundnuts, they develop fungus.” President of the Udupi District Krishik Sangha Ramakrishna Sharma said farmers were facing a lot of hardship owing to loss of groundnut crop and added that the Government should give them adequate relief. Joint Director of the Department of Agriculture S.M. Gaddad said that groundnuts had germinated wherever harvest was delayed and they had dried up.

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