Drought or flood, it is farmers who suffer the worst. In a mountain district like Wayanad, however, floods take a much bigger economic toll than a drought because the gushing waters take away not just crops but croplands too.
The trail of destruction left by the recent rain and floods in Wayanad district — a major producer of coffee, tea and spices — hit the farming community pretty hard. Vast areas of ginger, black pepper, cardamom, areca nut, rubber, tubers, plantain, coffee and tea are in tatters. The Agriculture Department’s preliminary assessment puts the crop loss at ₹223 crore. Close to 4,000 hectares of cropland got damaged and some 20,000 farmers took the hit.
Hopes drowned
In June this year, the spirit of farmers cultivating short-term crop such as ginger was buoyed for a short while when the price of ginger spiralled to ₹9,500 for 60-kg bag. By early August, the price began to climb down, and now it stands at ₹2,500-₹2,700 a bag. The rising price had wooed more farmers into cultivating more ginger on leased land. But the ginger farms, especially those on the plains, got submerged by the floods in early August, drowning farmers’ hopes.
Ginger rhizomes have since been affected by soft-rot disease. Heavy rains flooded the farms and the farmers were forced to harvest the premature ginger rhizomes.
“I have spent nearly ₹50 lakh to cultivate ginger on 10 acres of leased land, but I am not sure if I can recover even a quarter of the cost,” said Jaison Parakkal, a farmer at Manikavu.
Wilting vines
A few decades ago, black pepper was the major source of livelihood for Wayanad farmers. But, since the turn of the century, quick-wilt and other diseases inflicting pepper vines have devastated pepper gardens. However, when the black pepper price shot up to ₹800 a kg two years ago, farmers resumed pepper cultivation. But the torrential rains in August washed off black pepper vines in many areas.
Then there are the diseases. The high moisture content owing to the rains has triggered fungal diseases like quick-wilt and soft-wilt. The current weather aids the spread of quick-wilt disease. Because of the climatic conditions it would not be a surprise if pepper production in the next season is halved.
The price of Robusta coffee beans has fallen to the lowest-ever level in eight years. Coffee production had been low in the last two years owing to the dearth of back-up showers after the coffee blossoming. Post floods, the black-rot disease which causes green berry dropping as well as shedding of berries has set in. In the wake of landslips and flooding, coffee production is expected to fall by a fourth in Wayanad the next season. Tea production is likely to go down, too.
Devastated
The floods have also hit areca nut, a promising crop gaining popularity in Wayanad after the destruction of pepper vines. Four-fifths of the 22,000 hectares of areca nut land have been affected badly by the floods. Vast areas of banana plantations were devastated by the floods, causing a loss of around ₹16 crore.
Add the general slowdown which hit Kerala’s rural economy much before the national one, with the November 2016 demonetisation, to the loss of crops and croplands. Add the price crash of agricultural commodities. Add, again, the crippling crop diseases. And, we have on our hands a huge farm-sector crisis in Wayanad.
(Malabar Mail is a weekly column by The Hindu’s correspondents that will reflect Malabar’s life and lifestyle)
