BJP's arecanut push, a knee-jerk move, experts opine

The BJP which is now depicting itself as the saviour of the arecanut farmers in the state appears to have encountered a roadblock. "It is 12 years too late an initiative, and the present relief for farmers and research funding is too meagre for handling the dire situation that the arecanut cultivation is in presently" opine the experts and farmers.

Following the BJP national president JP Nadda's speech that had various 'promises' for the areca farmers in the state, the farmers have quoted Gorakh Singh's report on Areca cultivation and management of diseases in 2008. Senior Arecanut grower and an authority on the diseases of Arecanut in Sringeri in Karnataka Dr. Kalkuli Vittal Hegde told Hans India that " Gorakh Singh's report was very elaborate, the committee he headed had a team of experts, researchers, the committee had made elaborate notations followed by talks with the individual farmers, a public hearing and village level meetings. The report had made several recommendations of which two were most important, - provide relief or provide an alternative. Which was a very proactive, pragmatic and practical approach in dealing with the afflictions that the Areca plantations were suffering in those days" Dr Hegde told.

He remembered Jayaprakash Hegde the former MP of Udupi-Chikkamgaluru when he was in the Congress party, who had taken the initiative of bringing Gorakh Singh to Sringeri.

Later many retrograde legislation, and reports followed which included the government of India report stating that Arecanut cultivation and yield are surpluses in India and it must be taken out of the subsidised plantation crop list. The worst blow was yet the Tata Insititute report on carcinogenic strains in Arecanut, which was however later proved wrong.

"I have studied the various diseases the Arecanut plantations and found out that in a province of China called Hayana they grow Arecanut over a land extending to 2 lakh hectares and the Chinese people use Arecanut in three different stages - tender, dried and boiled. The carcinogenic elements that we speak of are not in the Arecanut but in the additives and emulsifiers used in the value-added products. In fact, research proves that the areca nut has medicinal values Dr Hegde stated.

The planters in Sringeri were the worst sufferers of various diseases of Arecanut say that if it is not a political stunt with election on the mind BJP must prove its intentions by keeping all its promises before the elections.