Frequent weather changes, fall in price of areca and various kinds of diseases affecting the crops had already made the life of areca growers difficult. In addition to this, worms eating away the roots have come as a deadly blow to the farmers.
Though these plump white worms look small in size, they have already started creating havoc in the region. At Thuppur in Hiregadde GP limits, a farmer named Manjunath has already lost 400 areca trees due to the attack of these root eaters.
Farmers whose plantation has been attacked by these worms witness acute decline in yielding capacity of the trees. Over 50 worms are being found at the roots of each tree.
When the farmers hand pick these worms and destroy them, they find double the number at the roots of the trees next day. The growers say that they have to employ couple of workers only to pick and destroy these worms.
“I have toiled too hard to bring up these trees. When it is time for me to reap some benefits from this, the worms are eating away my trees. If this continues, I will be left no where,” says Manjunath.
The farming community is petrified by the fact that there is no medicine found to get rid of these root eating worms. They say that elected representatives must pay attention to conduct a survey in this regard and provide compensation.