Mysuru: Garlic cultivation has taken a beating in Chamarajanagar district this year due to depletion of the groundwater table.Scores of farmers from villages in Hanur and Chamarajanagar taluks have been cultivating garlic, onion and other horticultural crops on around 1,632 hectares using irrigation pumpsets. However, poor rainfall and falling groundwater levels have affected garlic cultivation.Farmers usually sow the crop during June and July and harvest it in October and November.Garlic is a water-sensitive crop requiring consistent soil moisture and adequate irrigation during its long growing cycle, making it vulnerable to drought conditions.As the crop has fetched decent prices in recent years, more farmers have taken up its cultivation.A large number of farmers also took up the cultivation of garlic in rural pockets of Hanur, Chamarajanagar and Gundlupet taluks, expecting bumper prices. As irrigation pumpsets also stopped yielding water due to depletion of groundwater, the garlic crops that were sown during the kharif season are withering due to lack of water. Delayed rains also impacted the crop yield, leading to a decline in production this year. This also affected the growers.Chamarajanagar district has registered a 60% scarcity of rain compared with the corresponding period in previous years, according to agriculture department sources.With the weak monsoon, most of the lakes and waterbodies dried up this year, leading to depletion of the groundwater table.As Chamarajanagar district lacks irrigation facilities compared with neighbouring Mysuru and Mandya districts, the majority of the farmers are cultivating crops depending upon irrigation facilities on rain-fed land.As garlic cultivation took a beating this year, the growers have now demanded intervention of govt to bail them out from the crisis. “I have spent nearly two lakh to cultivate garlic cultivation in one acre of land including to buy seeds, labour, sowing pesticides, chemical fertiliser and other production cost,” said Mahadevaswamy, a garlic grower of Lokkanahalli in Hanur taluk. “But the crops I had sown during June-July has now withered due to scanty rainfall while borewell also failed due to depletion of groundwater,” he explained.Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha leader Honnur Prakash urged Chamarajanagar district administration to conduct a joint survey of garlic crop losses after visiting affected fields and distribute scientific compensation to affected growers.Speaking to TOI, Chamarajanagar assistant director of horticulture Anitha said the department will verify the crop loss after visiting the fields and recommend the distribution of compensation for affected farmers. She said the area of garlic cultivation not only declined this year due to scanty rains and depletion of groundwater levels, but the crop yield was impacted as well, she said.
