Karnataka areca growers fume against tobacco lobby after cancer warning

Does areca consumption cause cancer? Yes, says a United Nations body, triggering widespread anger among growers in India, the world’s largest producer, and they are blaming the cigarette industry for the health warning blow.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a World Health Organization affiliate, declared on October 9 that one in three cases of oral cancer globally are due to smokeless tobacco and areca nuts.

It said that in 2022, more than 120,000 cases of oral cancer were caused by these risk factors, accounting for a third of all such cases globally.

Distress in states

The cancer warning has caused distress among hundreds of thousands of areca nut growers in Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.

In Karnataka, a major producer, the despair is widespread in the Malnad region, nestled in the Western Ghats. The farmers say their future is now bleak.

Some of them blame the tobacco lobby for the latest mess, and argue that the tobacco industry employs a variety of tactics to influence governments and public opinion to promote the sale and distribution of cigarettes.

Also read: Cancer kills 9.3 lakhs in India, smokeless tobacco a major worry

Hitting back at critics

The areca growers insist that chewing areca nuts on their own will not result in oral cancer. And chewing areca along with betel leaves will certainly not harm health.

TN Srinivasa, president of the Malenadu Raitha Horata Samithi (Malnad Farmers’ Movement), told The Federal: “The tobacco lobby is conspiring against areca nut to protect its global interests. Let the Centre conduct an independent probe and initiate action.”

Kishore Kumar Kodagi, president of the Central Areca Nut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd, is equally distraught. “There is no question of accepting the WHO report,” he said.

Indian warnings too

But the WHO-affiliated body is not the only one to raise the red flag over areca consumption. The National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR) has given out similar warnings.

Former health minister Anupriya Patel had quoted the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) as saying that there was evidence that most cases of oral cancer were linked to smokeless and smoking tobacco, and that alcohol, betel quid, and areca nut were the other risk factors.

Kodagi, however, argued that the IMRC report was referring to tobacco-mixed areca. “Areca on its own is not cancerous,” he said. “We will take up this issue at an appropriate level.”

Also read: Spending on paan, tobacco, intoxicants increased in last one decade: Govt survey

Farmers to protest

RM Ravi, president of the Tota Utpannagala Maarata Sahakara Sangha Niyamita (TUMCOS), however sounded confident that the latest crisis will pass — like the earlier ones.

“Reports of this kind created tensions among growers earlier too. There is no need for growers to be worried. We will take up the issue with the governments at the Centre and the state.”

The Malnad Farmers’ Movement has decided to launch protests in Karnataka after December 15 if the Modi government fails to find a solution for the ongoing crisis.

From profits to crisis

In a bid to debunk the cancer threats, Srinivasa pointed out that chewing the mixture of areca nuts and betel leaves has been a popular cultural activity in many Asian countries for thousands of years.

The frustration among the growers in Karnataka is understandable since areca cultivation, earlier limited to Malnad region, has penetrated into the arid regions of the state’s north.

Areca has turned out to be a commercial crop and offering maximum returns compared to other crops. The area of areca nut production in Karnataka almost doubled by the end of 2023 from 4,52,650 hectares in 2019-20. Now, it grows across 7,36,650 hectares.

Also read: Over 40% of Cricket World Cup 2023 ads promoted smokeless tobacco brands

Rejecting areca nuts

Also, in 2019-20, Karnataka produced 457.56 thousand tonnes of areca nuts, the highest in India. The output doubled in 2024. Karnataka accounts for 78.98 per cent of India’s areca nut production. India alone accounts for 54.07 per cent of the world’s areca output.

But the cancer issue is not the only problem for the areca growers.

In August 2024, they were anxious as truckloads of the nut were rejected by traders in north India, citing poor quality. This pushed down the price from Rs 55,000 a quintal to Rs 45,000 a quintal in a month.

Diseases hit areca crops

The Malnad Areca Marketing Cooperative Society Ltd says the rejection took place although the growers and traders give necessary attention to quality.

All these developments have dampened the spirit of growers, who have been enjoying high prices for white areca nut this year.

The All India Areca Growers Association at Puttur has urged the government to survey the plantations which have succumbed to disease and compensate the growers while waiving off land revenue payable by farmers.

Also read: Pesticide exposure can increase cancer risk as much as smoking: Study

Unwanted imports

In its previous term, the Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah gave away Rs 70 crore as compensation for areca growers whose plantations were hit by crop disease.

“The BJP promised to support the growers in the run up to Lok Sabha polls but failed,” says Srinivasa.

Sunny D’Souza of the Raitha Sanghagala Okkuta of Dakshina Kannada district accuses the Central government of importing areca from Nepal and Sri Lanka despite the overflowing Indian production. Areca has also been smuggled into India from Myanmar, he says.

The latest crisis

“India is already producing enough areca nut of good quality. We are demanding a complete ban on the import of areca to protect the country’s areca growers,” he said.

To protect the domestic market, the Centre hiked the minimum support price of areca nut months before the Lok Sabha elections, from Rs 251 to Rs 351 a kilo.

But the report suggesting the role of areca nuts in oral cancer has created anxiety among millions of growers across the country, especially in Karnataka.