A humble nut deemed bad for health may sway political fortunes in K’taka
SHIVAMOGGA: On March 9, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Madal Virupakshappa, the MLA from Channagiri constituency in Davangere district, claimed that the ₹8.23 crore recovered from his house and office during a raid by Lokayukta police was money earned from areca nut cultivation.
“Any average areca grower in Channagiri keeps ₹4-5 crore at their residence. It’s not a big thing in Channagiri,” he added.
Virupakshappa resigned as chairman of the state-owned Karnataka Soaps and Detergent Limited (KSDL), the maker of the famed Mysore Sandal soap, after his son Prashanth Kumar MV was arrested by the Lokayukta police on March 8 while allegedly accepting a ₹40 lakh bribe from a contractor who wanted to work with KSDL. Virupakshappa was denied the Channagiri ticket.
His statement on the earnings from areca nut grown in his 125-acre farm in Channagiri has triggered curiosity. Many farmers in his home constituency admit they do not keep crores in cash at home, but add that areca farming is lucrative despite its longer gestation period.
Karnataka accounts for around 80% of the country’s areca nut production of 1.4 million tonnes. Most areca farms are concentrated in the Malnad region of the state, around the Western Ghats and Central Karnataka. Of the 25 assembly segments in central Karnataka and Malnad, the BJP won 20 seats in 2018. The Congress won the rest.
Areca nut is the seed of the areca palm, popular as a mild stimulant (it is chewed), although its use is associated with a bunch of health conditions.
Farmers say their fortunes improved in the 1980s when manufacturers began making and selling gutka, a mixture of chewing tobacco, areca nut, lime, and a bunch of flavouring agents. The use of gutka is hugely popular in India, it has made many fortunes (for its makers), and while various states have banned them over the past decades, manufacturers have either got relief from courts, simply ignored the law, or bypassed it in myriad smart ways (some sold the tobacco and the areca nut and flavourings separately; others resorted to surrogate advertising featuring Bollywood’s biggest stars).
But a sword hangs over the entire ecosystem — an adverse ruling, or a health ministry notification could change things.
And so, farmers in Channagiri want political parties to declare that areca is not injurious to health. In February, Union minister Shobha Karandlaje said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to set up a team of advocates to argue in the Supreme Court, for areca nut growers.
State Congress spokesperson Ramesh Hegde accused the PM of not implementing his 2014 promise of safeguarding the interest of areca farmers made in a public rally in Chikkamagaluru and claimed that despite studies showing that areca nut has pharmaceutical properties, the Centre has failed to submit an affidavit to this effect in the Supreme Court.
To be sure, such claims of the stimulant’s medicinal properties are made more in hope than on the basis of science.
“In fact, BJP leaders in Parliament such Ashwini Kumar (junior health minister) and Nishikant Dubey (an MP) termed consumption of betel nut as bad for human consumption. A false narrative was created that the then (Congress-led) UPA government had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court to ban areca,” Hegde said, adding that Dubey wrote to PM in 2021 reiterating his demand claiming that areca’s consumption causes cancer. Science shows that regular use could. Betel nut is another name for areca nut.
It will be tough for any progressive state to give in to the demands of areca growers, though.
DM Shankarappa, president of Shivamogga Arecanut Mandi Merchants’ Association, said that there is a false propaganda as there is no research that shows that areca nut consumption is bad for human health. “The government should look into this. Or else, it will destroy our economy.”
In Virupakshappa’s assembly constituency, Channagiri, which has a population of around 220,000, about 50% of the population is areca farmers. The rest are small and marginal farmers. Channagiri is a semi-arid region that has seen adequate rainfall over the past two years, resulting in better water supply.
Apart from immunity from a possible (and ever-looming) ban, areca nut farmers here have another concern, smuggling.
The import of cheaper areca varieties has seen the price of the product fall from ₹55,000 per quintal a few years ago to ₹45,000 now.
“If sub-standard quality areca from other countries is smuggled into the country, the market price fluctuates. This instability creates uncertainty for us. The government should make sure there is price stability,” said GR Shivalinga murthy, who has a 20-acre areca nut plantation in Channagiri.
GV Rudrappa said sub-standard areca from Nepal, Malaysia and other countries is smuggled into the country, “mixed with locally grown areca nut” and sold. Between a third and a fourth of areca sold in India is smuggled said another farmer, DS Jayadev.
In order to prevent import of poor quality areca, the government introduced minimum import price (MIP) on areca nut in 2012. In the run-up to the elections in Karnataka, in February, the government provided relief to areca nut growers by hiking the MIP from ₹251 a kg to ₹351 a kg. But Jayadev said the intervention did not have much impact on price stability as “cheaper varieties” are still being smuggled in.
BY Raghavendra, Lok Sabha member from Shivamogga district, and son of former chief minister BS Yediyuruppa, highlighted the price fall for areca in Parliament in December 2022. “In the first week of September this year, the price of areca nut was ₹58,000 per quintal. But it dropped to ₹39,000 per quintal in the second week of December due to arrival of low-quality areca nut from neighbouring countries,” he said in the Lok Sabha.
Farmers want the government to check smuggling of areca and increase import duty.
In the run up to the elections, all political parties have raked up the issues of areca growers, who can influence outcome in as close to 45-50 assembly constituencies, and tried to appease them.
JP Nadda, the national president of the BJP, attended the Arecanut Growers Convention in Chikkamagluru in February this year, and spoke about how the industry is the backbone of Karnataka. He also said that only PM Modi was a true friend to the farmers. “He has introduced many schemes for the benefit of farmers,” Nadda said.
Shiv Kumar, who has been nominated from the BJP to contest from Channagiri this election instead of Virupakshappa, said that areca growers are doing well under the BJP government.
Hegde, however, insisted the central and state governments have failed to control smuggling of low-quality areca-nut from neighbouring countries, and that the Congress would raise the issue during the campaign.
GV Rudrappa, an areca farmer, wants the government to cut fertiliser prices and control smuggling of areca nut from other countries, but he wants more. “The government should also invest in areca nut research.”
After all, he added, it isn’t easy to grow areca, the farmers claim.
“It requires suitable land and there is no crop for the initial 7-8 years. It requires lot of water and is very labour intensive. Also, fertilisers are expensive.”
It costs ₹50,000 to ₹70,000 per acre to grow areca, and each acre can give up to 7-10 quintals. And, a quintal sells for between ₹35,000 and ₹45,000.
“It is profitable if the price is decent,” Rudrappa admitted. But he is quick to add that Virupakshappa’s claim of earning crores from areca farming is “nonsense”. “No farmer has that much cash at home.”