The Hindu : Karnataka / Bijapur News : Pomegranates hit by bacterial blight

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Friday, Sep 03, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bijapur

Pomegranates hit by bacterial blight

By Suresh Bhat

BIJAPUR, SEPT. 2. The horticulture sector, which was severely hit by drought in the past three years, is under further stress. This time, it is the bacterial disease that is ruining horticulture crops, especially pomegranate.

Pomegranate is the major horticulture crop in Bijapur district after grape, and it contributes almost one-fourth of the State's production (pomegranate).

According to the official records, the area under pomegranate cultivation is 5,980 hectares in the district and Bijapur taluk alone has 5,020 hectares.

Not long ago, Jumnal, a village five km away from Bijapur city, was famous for export-quality pomegranate.

However, now a fungus disease called bacterial blight has affected most of crop in over 1,000 acres of land. Decomposing pomegranates can be seen spilled all over the field. It is difficult to find healthy fruits. The stems and leaves are also infected.

The fortunes of Gurappa Biradar, a small time farmer, who spent most of his lifetime facing difficulties, turned upward after he started cultivating pomegranates. He has two-and-a-half acre garden, and everything was normal till year 2002. However, last year some of the plants were infected by bacterial blight. This year, it spread to most part of his field. So is the case with others in the village.

``Those who want to harvest the crop used to quote over Rs. 2 lakh for my garden till the previous year. But now they are asking it for Rs. 40,000, which will not even bring back the investment. I have decided to remove the plants and am thinking of alternative crop,'' he told The Hindu.

70 p.c. crop hit

According to the president of the District Pomegranate Growers Association, M.B. Ullagaddi, over 70 per cent of crop is infected. The loss in terms of value, he said, was not less than Rs. 120 crores. However, the Department of Horticulture is yet to make final assessment of the crop loss. But the officials admit that the disease is widespread.

The Plant Protection Officer, Dayanand Saagar, said Rs. 2.5 lakhs was an average return from one hectare in normal case. Going by the area of cultivation, the annual yield in the district had to be over Rs. 170 crores, again under normal condition. However, this year the disease had inflicted heavy damage, the extent of which was yet to be calculated.

Difficult

M.R. Ravikumar, a scientist working in the Department of Plant Pathology, Regional Research Centre (Bijapur) of University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, said that it was difficult to root out the disease unless and until a mass eradication measure (spraying the medicine simultaneously) was taken up through out the State, as it was an airborne bacteria. The disease had spread everywhere. However, Dr. Ravikumar said it could be kept under control to some extent if the proper method was applied while pruning and with regular spray of the specific medicines depending on the soil and moisture condition.

Mass programme

But Mr. Ullagaddi said the treatment was not affordable by common farmers and moreover, it was not economically viable. In the past, the Government had agreed in principle to subsidise costs for mass eradication programme, which had to taken up in coordination with the department, scientists and growers. Bacterial blight was not limited to the district alone. If the crop was to be saved, some concrete measures, preferably simultaneous spraying of pesticides had to be taken up immediately. Help could be sought from neighbouring States, especially Maharashtra, where the disease was prevalent, for the operation, he said.

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Pomegranates hit by bacterial blight