Stakeholders expect more than 30 per cent crop loss in areca due to fruit rot disease 

Heavy rainfall in arecanut-growing regions during July and August this year has made an impact on the crop with farmers experiencing fruit rot disease in their arecanut plantations. The stakeholders in the sector fear that the crop loss due to fruit rot disease will be more than 30 per cent this year.

Mahesh Puchhappady, General Secretary of All India Areca Growers’ Association, told BusinessLine that many farmers were not in a position to take up fungicide spraying in their plantations during July this year as there was heavy rainfall in many of the arecanut-growing regions. Rainfall extended up to mid-August in some regions.

He said farmers usually take up first round of Bordeaux spraying in their plantations before the onset of monsoon in May. (Bordeaux, which is fungicide used in arecanut plantations, is a mixture of copper sulphate and calcium oxide in water.) After a month’s gap, farmers used to take up Bordeaux spraying in July.

However, most of the arecanut-growing regions were witnessing heavy rainfall during July. As a result, they could not take up spraying of fungicidetill mid-August. Many plantations were affected by fruit rot disease by then, he said, adding the average crop loss could be around 30-40 per cent this year.

A Kishore Kumar Kodgi, President of Campco (Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative) Ltd, told BusinessLine that both the white arecanut and red arecanut-growing regions are being affected by this disease.

Apart from the white arecanut growing regions in coastal Karnataka, the red arecanut growing regions such as Thirthahalli and Shivamogga have also reported the cases of fruit rot disease, he said.

Referring to the common practice of two rounds of fungicide spraying in arecanut plantations, he said many farmers have taken up three rounds of spraying this year.

Stating that the cultivation of arecanut has been expanded to dry land areas such as Chitradurga, Channgairi, Bheemasamudra, etc., in the recent years, he said the farmers in those regions were not spraying fungicides in their plantations. However, rainfall in those regions this year has forced them to take up the spraying activities, he said.

Fruit rot disease

Fruit rot disease in arecanut plantations is characterised by rotting and heavy shedding of immature nuts. Continuous heavy rainfall with intermittent sunshine, low temperatures and high humidity are the factors behind the spread of disease.

During monsoon, the atmospheric temperature will be low and the relative humidity will be high. These factors result in increased incidence of diseases such as fruit rot in arecanut.

For this, farm scientists recommend spraying of 1 per cent of Bordeaux mixture on the arecanut inflorescences.

It may be mentioned here that the farmers are getting more than ₹500 a kg for quality arecanut. On Tuesday, new stocks of white arecanut traded at ₹420-475 a kg. Rashi grade of red arecanut was trading at ₹555 a kg in Shivamogga APMC on Tuesday.

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