Raitha Sangha to agitate for support to rubber and coconut growers

Raitha Sangha to agitate for support to rubber and coconut growers

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, August 28, 2016: Dakshina Kannada district unit of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Haseeru Sene will take out a protest rally and stage a demonstration to press for their 10-point charter of demands, on August 30. The focus of the protest is to highlight the plight of three major cash crops of the district - areca nut, coconut and rubber - growers of which have suffered in recent times due to fall in their prices and lack of support from the state and central governments.

Ravikiran Punacha, president of the Sangha told reporters here that the farmers growing these three crops are not getting any sort of assistance from the departments concerned. Incidentally, ministers for agriculture and horticulture who met protesting farmers from 12 districts in Bengaluru on June 25 had given assurances that state government will sympathetically consider their demands. "They assured that issue of minimum support price will be taken up with the Centre," he said.

While a Spices Board report has pegged the production cost of areca nut at Rs 172 per kilogram and the Kerala government is providing minimum support price of Rs 150/kg to areca nut growers and has set up a revolving fund of Rs 500 crore to help farmers facing agrarian crisis, there is no such step by state government. No procurement centres for coconut has been set up nor any step take to scientifically compensate areca nut farmers for yellow leaf disease caused losses.