Arecanut is the lifeline for many people in coastal Karnataka and parts of Malnad in Karnataka.

While the economy in these areas is dependent on this commodity, it has also influenced writers, movie-makers and politicians.

G.V. Joshi, professor at the Nitte-based Justice K.S. Hegde Institute of Management, says that the Kannada novel Bettada Jeeva, written by the Jnanpith Award* winner late Shivarama Karanth, revolves around agriculture, predominantly arecanut, in a remote Western Ghat village. The story plot of this novel is set in a pre-independent era.

Referring to a line in the novel, Joshi says that the author had seen the labour shortage in arecanut plantations then. That has continued now also. It will continue in future also.

Kannada cinema has seen many movies based on the theme agriculture. In fact, the story line of a 1997 Kannada movie Nammoora Mandara Hoove, which went on to become a super hit, was again based on the arecanut-growing family in a Malnad village.

The former Karnataka Chief Minister, Sadananda Gowda, who hails from the family of arecanut growers, rose to limelight in 2001 after he staged a 90-km paadyaatra seeking minimum support price for arecanut. That year the price of old stocks of white arecanut crashed drastically to Rs 40 a kg. (The price crossed Rs 200 a kg in 2012).

Joshi says that another former Karnataka Chief Minister, late Ramakrishna Hegde, who went on to became a Central Minister, also hailed from the family of arecanut growers in Siddapur of Uttara Kannada district.

* Shivarama Karanth won Jnanpith for another novel -- Mookajjiya Kanasu.