Karnataka’s heat and drought wilt vegetable cultivation Premium

Hoskote taluk faces drought, affecting horticulture crops, leading to soaring vegetable prices in Bengaluru, impacting farmers and consumers.

Patches of green followed by patches of brown dominate the scene through the villages of Hoskote taluk, a major horticultural crop supplier to Bengaluru, situated roughly 35 kilometres from the city centre. Cabbage, tomato, sunflower, marigold, and maize are among the crops grown in the fields adjacent to the highway, but on a scorching March morning, half the fields are dry and barren.

While drought has hit the drinking water supply to Bengaluru, the dry season affecting the horticulture belt around the city has burnt a hole in the pockets of consumers in the last year as prices of vegetables soar, with withering crops and the resultant supply crunch. 

The Hindu visited this belt — Hoskote in Bengaluru Rural district, a couple of taluks in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts — to find out how badly agriculture is affected and whether what Bengalureans are shelling out for their vegetables is reaching the farmers who are struggling to keep their crops alive.

The locals say Nandagudi and Sulibele hoblis in Hoskote are the most water-deprived regions in the taluk. The nearby lake, which, when filled up, provides irrigation, has now completely dried up. Their only other source of water is the borewells. But with the monsoons failing in 2023 and most borewells going dry, many farmers sank more borewells in their fields, only to find no water.

B.N. Anand is one such farmer. “I got two borewells — going down 1,150 feet and another 1,200 feet — dug up in my field this time. Both of them failed, and after having spent ₹7 lakh on borewells and motors, I could not get even one extra drop of water,” Anand lamented. Apart from some patches of maize and banana, his vast field of over 10 acres barely had any signs of greenery. He said cultivation had dropped by about 50% in Hoskote. 

“Across Hoskote, lakes have dried up, and borewells are failing. We are major producers of vegetables, flowers, and, most prominently, ginger. In a good season, the farmers around here cultivate ginger on at least 40-50 acres. This time, the crop is spread over hardly 25 acres. This is the same case with all other crops,” Anand explained. 

While water tankers have become part of everyday conversation in Bengaluru, some farmers are also spending a small fortune on them to save their standing crops. Venu B.C. has cultivated green grapes on two acres in Sulibele hobli. After his borewells failed, he is getting four tanker loads every day.