After the State witnessed farmers destroying sugarcane crop in their fields in view of their problems, it now appears to be the turn of sericulture farmers.
As a token of protest against the alleged failure of the government to save sericulture farmers from incurring losses, a farmer in Chickballapur district destroyed mulberry crop cultivated on two acres.
Venkateshappa, of Jatavara village, was worried about the fall in silk cocoon prices. He has been cultivating mulberry on 4.5 acres for about a decade. This year, the crop fetched only Rs. 63,000 as against the expected income of Rs. 1.5 lakh. This prompted him to destroy the crop. He hired an earthmover and removed the crop grown on two acres. “If the situation doesn’t improve in the near future, I will uproot the remaining crop too,” he said.
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Sericulture farmers in various parts of Karnataka are protesting the cut in import duty on raw silk, which they blame for their woes, as demand for domestic silk came down substantially and prices crashed.
Both the Centre and State government should understand the gravity of situation and initiate steps to improve the cocoon rate. Else the sericulture sector will face a crisis and cultivators will be left in the lurch
C. Gopinath
Secretary, Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha, Chickballapur district unit