After nearly four years, rainfall has been plentiful in most parts of the State, pulling many districts out of drought. For farmers, however, their troubles are far from over.
If for the past few years, the prices of vegetables, including greens, were up owing to drought; this year, it is because of the unusual pattern of rainfall, which has seen the entire monsoon’s share of rainfall come within just three weeks.
Leafy vegetables are the worst hit. The price of most greens — methi (fenugreek), palak (spinach), sabsige (dill), and coriander — was over ₹100 a kg on Saturday, while their price was less than ₹45 a kg in the last week of August. The priciest was coriander, at ₹174, while methi was selling at ₹162 a kg. “The supply of greens has been less than 20% than usual. Most farmers have been reporting crop loss,” said a procurement official of a leading retail chain.
G. Muniswamy Gowda, a farmer from Channarayapatna near Devanahalli, said he suffered huge losses in the first two weeks of September because of heavy rains. “I grow greens on almost two acres of land. Two sets of crops (greens can be harvested around 15 days after sowing) were lost as there was water stagnation in the farm,” he said.
Not just greens, many farmers have lost vegetable crops as well. Farmers in parts of Doddaballapur, Hoskote and Malur in Kolar district have seen loss of beans and brinjal crops as well, sources said. Beans now cost ₹64 a kg, up from ₹40 last month, while brinjals cost ₹51 as against ₹43 last month.
On the other hand, the heavy rains have helped replenish groundwater and fill lakes that had remained dry for years. With this, crop yield is expected to increase in the coming days and this could stablise the prices.
Chennathimmaiah, a farmer from Magadi taluk in Ramanagaram district, said six lakes in the taluk had overflowed after almost a decade. “We have also suffered some crop loss owing to untimely heavy rains. But lakes filling to the brim has left us happy, and we are feeling secure of our livelihood in the coming summer,” he said. Mr. Gowda said water level in his tubewell had risen and he was hoping for a better crop in the coming months.
G.S. Srinivasa Reddy, director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, said underground water table levels, which will be measured only in October (the last reading was in August), would give an indicator of the health of the groundwater table. “The rains would have definitely led to some recharge of tubewells, bringing some relief to farmers,” he said. With the crop cycle of greens and most other vegetables being less than two months, their prices are expected to stabilise in the coming months, said the retail chain procurement official.