Mangaluru: Areca farmers irked, up the ante

Mangaluru: The Home Minister of Karnataka Aragha Jnanendra has chosen the worst of times to make a statement on arecanut stating that its future was bleak and farmers would suffer if they continue with arecanut cultivation. This statement he purportedly made at the current session of the Assembly in Belagavi.

Following the statement, the leaders of the Congress party have opened a broadside against him. Protests were held at eight places in the state where Arecanut is cultivated intensively. In the Dakshina Kannada district itself, the areca growers and the Congress leaders held protests in two different places. According to the areca growers and their associations, more protests will be held across 8 districts of Karnataka where areca is cultivated mainly, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, and the Home minister's own district- Shivamogga.

Leading the tirade senior Congress leader and former minister B Ramanatha Rai who is also an areca grower said "Jnanendra is the home minister of the state and cannot make a such fleeting statement on a popular commercial crop like that, over 7 lakh areca growers depend on this crop for its commercial applications, there are instances where the areca nut has been categorised as non-carcinogenic produce and has medicinal values and there is a history of over few centuries that has established its consumption has traditional values and customary applications". Rai led a protest at Buntwal Cross Road junction on NH 75 where hundreds of his supporters and growers participated.

At Mangaluru city the DCC president Hareesh Kumar held a protest near the city clock tower intersection and berated the home minister for his comments: "It was uncharitable and uncharacteristic of the home minister to speak like that on the floor of the house, his statement has rattled lakhs of areca growers and a popular trade and industry bodies". Former Mayor M Shashidhar Hegde, former MLA JR Lobo and the opposition leaders in the Mangalore City Corporation also participated.

The opposition had quoted Aragha Jnanendra as saying that the Areca cultivation in the state should not be given any incentive under the agriculture policy of the state as Arecanut was used for only chewing and spitting, the areca growers in the state may face lots of problems due to various factors in the future.

However, he later clarified that his statement had been twisted by the opposition parties to suit their agenda and was politicising it. Arecanut had always been a matter of a tussle between the government and the opposition. Even when the state government in the early 1990s had allowed the multi-state Arecanut trading regulator and Co-operative CAMPCO limited to export Arecanut to Pakistan the opposition berated the government for trading with our adversary country over the border.

The Arecanut Research and Development Foundation (ARDF) headed by the present Rajya Sabha member (nominated) Dr D Veerendra Heggade had unleashed several value-added products including mouth freshener with cashew nut and desiccated rose petals which has become a niche export product of the CAMPCO. A Nepal-based ethnic alcohol-free winemaker 'Druk'had also formulated a wine from Arca extracts, which the Nepal government had labelled it as 'made from the finest arecanut grown in India'-.