How areca nut plantations get ready for monsoon

A treeline of tall areca nut plants is a common sight in coastal Karnataka. The state is the leading producer of the crop that has a variety of purposes including medicinal and recreation. The crop has a huge cultural value and is a common sight in the social, cultural and religious life of the region. India is the leading producer of areca nut in the world. Karnataka and Kerala produce 80% of them. But, the crop is plagued by multiple diseases including fruit rot disease.

A fungal disease, fruit rot disease occurs 15-20 days after the onset of monsoons. It can significantly affect the yield. So, every year, a mixture of copper sulphate and lime is sprayed onto the areca nut bunch to mitigate the disease. In a labour-intensive process, farm owners decide on the number of labourers required. It depends on the availability and the size of the plantation. 

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On the day of ‘maddu’ (medicine in Kannada), the labourers head straight to the plantation early in the morning. Empty drums are placed throughout the plantation where the fungicide mixture called 1% Bordeaux solution, is prepared. This mixture cannot be stored but has to be prepared fresh every day

Seashells are used to make quicklime, which is an essential ingredient to the fungicide. When these shells are added to hot water, it looks like the water is boiling. But, it is carbon dioxide being released into the air, while the calcium carbonate of the shell is reduced to quicklime.

The other ingredient is the copper sulphate. It comes in crystallised form. This is dissolved in water, resulting in a blue-coloured liquid. The two solutions are then added to water and stirred constantly.

This solution is the fungicide that is sprayed onto the areca fruits. The fungicide is pumped up using a motor pump set. The climbers spray the solution on the fruits at the top of the tree. 

Not every labourer climbs the trees to spray the fungicide. It requires immense strength and men are usually the ones who do the climbing. They won’t just spray to the tree they have climbed but also the nearby ones. When asked how many trees one such bucket of solution covers, a veteran labourer named Guruva said, “Oh, we don’t know. We do everything by instinct”.

A break is usually taken closer to noon when the labourers have breakfast. They break for lunch later in the afternoon. It is an unwritten rule that meat is served during breakfast and lunch. So, when the total cost of fungicide spraying is considered, the cost of meat makes up a significant portion of the labour costs.

The work is continued until all the trees are covered. In the farm, this reporter visited four people – Sundari, Guruva, Gaurav, and Satheesh. They worked for two consecutive days to finish three acres of plantation. At the end of the two days, the foliage on the ground was covered in blue dots – the residual fungicide from the trees above. 

At the end of the day, the pump set, covered in blue, was brought back into the verandah of the house. The cat that followed the labourers around knew the day of ‘maddu’ ended and plopped on the floor next to them.