The Karnataka Growers Federation (KGF) has urged elected representatives from coffee growing districts to put pressure on the State and Union governments to announce relief for coffee growers who suffered a huge loss owing to untimely incessant rains.
KGF chairman H.T. Mohan Kumar and general secretary K.B. Krishnappa, in a press release issued here on Tuesday, said the recent untimely rains had hit the growers bad. The growers had not been able to harvest the crop. The yield of pepper had also come down abysmally. Following rains, the cost of production had also gone up, increasing the loss. Besides that, the coffee growing community had been facing difficulty owing to the menace of wild animals.
The compensation granted to coffee growers under the NDRF guidelines was negligible. Considering the plight of growers, the elected representatives from Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, and Kodagu districts should put pressure on the Union and State governments to announce special relief for growers, the KGF said.