Yellow leaf diseases: Centre to take proactive step

Yellow leaf diseases: Centre to take proactive step
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Yellow leaf diseases: Centre to take proactive step

Highlights

The union ministry has announced that it would constitute a high-level research team to go into the yellow leaf diseases that are dogging the Arecanut plantations in the state in particular and six other states in general where the Arecanut is cultivated

Mangaluru: The union ministry has announced that it would constitute a high-level research team to go into the yellow leaf diseases that are dogging the Arecanut plantations in the state in particular and six other states in general where the Arecanut is cultivated. Narendra Singh Tomar the union minister for agriculture and his deputy Shobha Karandlje (MP from Udupi Chikkamagaluru) has announced the new initiative.

People were worried about the yellow leaf diseases, which were mostly reported in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Assam. This led to the initiative. These states together have over 11 lakh hectares under Arecanut cultivation and 35 per cent of them suffer due to this disease, consequently, the yield has also come down anywhere between 16-21 per cent depending on the intensity of the disease on a pan India scenario. But in Karnataka and Kerala, the crop loss was to the tune of 22-26 per cent, due to unseasonal and above-average rainfall.

According to the Arecanut Research and Development Foundation the Areca cultivation, trading and allied industry y forms the economic backbone of nearly 16 million people in India

In addition to the devastating effects of the Yellow Leaf Disease, the smuggling of Areanuts from some South Eastern countries has affected the Areca trade and also causes wide fluctuation of prices which puts the planters in a quandary for stability. According to the experts in the Multistate Arecanut marketing cooperative (CAMPCO) in Karnataka, the smuggling takes the route mainly from Myanmar and Indonesia, through North Eastern states by evading proper tax and such areca nuts are flooding the north Indian markets. Stringent action may be taken to curb such illegal import or smuggling of areca nut.

CAMPCO president Kishore Kumar Kodgi has welcomed the central government's move to commission a study team to examine the Yellow Leaf Disease in the Arecanut plantation on a pan-India basis. The CAMPCO president has stated that the central minister for agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar and his deputy Shobha Karandlaje (MP) from Udupi Chikkamagaluru have taken the right step towards mitigating the long-standing problems faced by over 11 lakh areca planters in six states- Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh Telangana and Assam . The study which will be done on scientific platform will hopefully give relief to the Areca cultivators. He hoped.

Impact: this initiative by the central agriculture ministry will commission the top minds in plantation crop research institutes in Kasargod, Vittla and the agriculture and forestry colleges of India including the one in Sirsi in Karnataka will open a new level of management of Areca plantations.

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