A blighted fruit of labour: Distraught pomegranate farmers in Karnataka seek better guidance, support from state

Affected by blight and wilt diseases, pomegranate yield has come down by at least 60% in the state leading to reduced cultivation area and forcing growers to approach the government for help with insurance and marketing of the the fruit’s byproduct

It has been three years since pomegranate farmers in Karnataka have had a good crop year. Now, with incessant rains, pomegranates are being affected by blight and wilt diseases which leave the fruit with black spots and cracked surfaces, thereby reducing their quality. While some farmers in the North Karnataka region have crop insurance, new farmers in regions around Bengaluru have no protection. 

In the districts of Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Bengaluru Rural, farmers removed their usual crops of grapes and other vegetables and planted pomegranates a few years ago in the hope of reaping greater profits. While this change did bear fruit for the first two to three years, 60 to 70% of these farmers have now removed these trees and gone back to other horticulture crops. The farmers reported losing over 50% of the fruits in the previous harvest. 

“Farmers here got excited about pomegranate bringing in good money. Now, it seems like grape was working out far better (for them). This year, flowering is not up to mark and as it has started to rain, more flowers will fall out and fruit production will be just 20–30%. Spotted fruits will have no value in the market. Along with this, the labour costs have also increased from ₹100-250 to ₹500-600 per day. How do we bear these costs when we get nothing from selling our crop?” asks Ashwath Reddy, a farmer from Sidlaghatta taluk in Chikkaballapur. 

Disease is also rampant in the northern belt, in districts like Belagavi and Bagalkot which are the leading producers of pomegranate in the State. According to farmers, cultivation area of the crop has come down drastically in these regions.

Krishna Patil from Bagalkot went from having 25,000 pomegranate trees spread across 85 acres to only 3 acres as of date. “In our Kaladgi region, only 10% of pomegranate farmers are left. We used to send 15-20 truckloads of fruits to Hyderabad and Kolkata during our peak years. Now, we hardly send 4-5 loads,” Mr. Patil laments. 

In Bagalkot district alone, there are over a thousand farmers who cultivate pomegranates. Fruits from here used to be exported to Bangladesh too. “Everything we grow has always sold out. Such is the demand for this fruit. But now, in the time of crisis, we have been neglected,” said S. B. Angadi, deputy chairman, Bagalkot Pomegranate Growers Association. 

Shivaprakash Tekki, a pomegranate grower, would get 10 tonnes of the fruit from an acre. Since 2019, however, the yield has come down by at least 60%. While some problems are caused by natural factors, the farmers are also disappointed with the lack of guidance and support from the State government.