Stating that grape growers of the State had been incurring financial losses due to the vagaries of nature for the last fifteen years, the Karnataka State Grape Growers’ Association has demanded that the Union and State governments waive off loans.
Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, association president Abhaykumar Nandrekar said that in the last 15 years, the growers have earned profit only in four years.
“In rest of the years, we have been losing crop and money due to drought, flood or hailstones. The farmers are unable to repay the loan they borrowed from various banks,” he said.
He claimed that the total amount of principal and interest had come to around Rs. 1,500 crore.
Mr. Nandrekar said that the associations had been urging the State government to seek the assistance of the Union government as most of the farmers have borrowed loan from nationalise banks.
“After persistent efforts, the State government presented the memorandum during the all-party meeting but, the Union government reportedly did not accept the proposal as it was not as per the prescribed norms,” he said.
Mr. Nandrekar said that the association had decided to take a delegation to Delhi on September 9 to meet the Union Agriculture Minister to present the memorandum in a prescribed form.
He claimed that Union Ministers such as Sadananda Gowda, Ananth Kumar, MPs including, Prakash Hukkeri, Ramesh Jigajinagi and P. C. Gaddigoudar, will accompany the delegation.
Earlier, he expressed apprehensions that the around 45 per cent of the grape farms of the State was expected to wither away owing to deficient rain fall this year.
He hoped that at least, this year, the government would acknowledge their demands and help distressed grape farmers.
