Mangaluru: Heavy rain in Dakshina Kannada district has affected arecanut farmers as they have suffered losses due to fruit rot disease.The department of horticulture has received 56,474 applications for compensation from farmers who suffered losses in their arecanut plantations.Fruit rot disease (kole roga) had affected a large portion of the plantations in the district that received heavy rains. The district had received 4,571.1mm rain as on October 20 this year from January. The district had received 3,222.7mm rain as on October 20 in 2017.Puttur, Sullia and Belthangady taluks received heavy rain in May and following months leading to increase in moisture content in arecanut farms. As a result, farmers in many parts of the district were not able to spray Bordeaux mixture, a mixture of copper sulfate and slaked lime used as a fungicide, to arecanut plants.According to the statistics from department of horticulture, the total area of arecanut cultivation in the district is 39,396 hectares and the average annual production is 3,604 metric tonnes. Sullia taluk has 11,389 hectares of arecanut cultivation, Puttur has 9,966 hectares, Bantwal has 6,230 hectares and Mangaluru has 3,775 hectares.Horticulture department deputy director H R Nayak told TOI that a total of 33,350 hectares of arecanut plantations in Dakshina Kannada district have been affected due to fruit rot disease. “We have submitted a report to the government with the statistics on loss. We have sought Rs 60 crore as compensation to be distributed among arecanut farmers in the district. The government will release the compensation through the revenue department,” he said.In fact, the district administration had submitted an estimate of Rs 217 crore as loss under natural calamities which also includes compensation for fruit rot disease, sources said.

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