Despite shallots cultivated across the state especially in the districts like Tirunelveli, Erode, Coimbatore, Dindigul, Tiruppur, Tiruchy and Namakkal, the Perambalur district stands in the forefront for more than 10 years and farmers from more than 200 villages in the district have been involved only on cultivating shallots. Perambalur produces 23 per cent of the total cultivation in the state.

Though the cultivation takes place mainly during May, June, October and November, the farmers concentrate cultivating the crop during October and November. Cultivation has been undertaken in an area of 12,500 acres in Perambalur and Alathur unions in the district.

In such a backdrop, the farmers who are about to harvest shallots were shocked to witness the crop being infected by a rare twister disease, which is feared to affect the yield.

Onion twister is a serious disease during the rainy season and this would impact the yield. The loss could be between 50 and 100 per cent. The infection shows curling, twisting, and chlorosis of the onion leaves, abnormal elongation of the necks, and formation of slender bulbs. While a few such diseased plants rot before harvest while others decay rapidly when stored.

“We need at least 500 kg seeds per acre and this would estimate at least Rs 1.50 lakh including the wages for labourers. This year, as there was adequate rainfall, we were happy that we could get good yields but things were otherwise when we were about to harvest, we noticed more than 90 per cent of the crops have been affected by this twister disease. This would result in a heavy loss to the farmers like me,” said Annadurai, a farmer from Irur village in Alathur taluk in the district. He said that he had obtained a loan for cultivating the crop but the disease would deal a heavy blow and repayment of the loan would be a dreadful affair.

Meanwhile, the District Horticulture Deputy Director Fatima said, the department had already warned the farmers to skip cultivating during October and November as the crops would be affected by the disease as there was moderate to heavy rains in the district. “Still, several farmers had gone ahead of cultivating the crop and we will assess the damage. The department also would help the farmers to get their insurance claims at the earliest”, the Deputy Director added.