Mango crop runs into rough weather
three major mango-producing states -- Andhra Pradesh (ap), Maharashtra and Karnataka -- are reaping the bitter harvest of the weather's vagaries. It is apprehended that the yield of the fruit in ap as well as Maharashtra will be only 40 per cent of the output achieved in 2003. Significantly, while ap usually records the highest mango productivity levels in India, the premium Alphonso variety is grown in Maharashtra.
The soaring mercury during last year's relentless dry spell shrivelled mango orchards in ap and parts of Karnataka. "As many as 17 lakh mango trees have died in Andhra Pradesh since May 2003," reveals Sambasiva Rao, joint director in ap's horticulture department. "For almost 20-22 days, the temperature hovered around 45 degrees Celsius in the state. This proved disastrous for the crop," he adds. The worst-affected area is the Nuziveed belt in Krishna district. Last year, the region produced about 6.5 lakh tonnes of mango. According to horticulture department officials, just one-fourth of the previous yield is expected during the current season since the drought has destroyed about 5 lakh trees.
By contrast, a sudden dip in the temperature during March this year in Maharashtra's Konkan region -- consisting of Ratnagiri, Raigarh, Thane and Sindhudurg districts -- wrought havoc on the mango crop. The normal temperature for March, when trees start bearing fruit, is above 24 degrees Celsius. But this time it did not cross 15-20 degrees Celsius. In the Konkan mango belt, about 1.23 lakh hectares (ha) is under Alphonso cultivation. Dilip Naik, president of Mahamango, a farmers' cooperative in Maharashtra, says the fruit's yield in the region is unlikely to exceed 40 per cent of last year's levels.
B M C Reddy, project coordinator for tropical fruits at the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, has a different explanation for the phenomenon. He feels that mango production fluctuates in alternate years. "Last year a bumper crop was recorded. The production this year will, therefore, be low," says Reddy. However, what has set alarm bells ringing this time is the extent of damage caused to the crop. This is primarily because of acute water scarcity in Karnataka as well as parts of ap. With the water table plummeting, the soil moisture content in these regions is very low. Several trees have withered as a result of these dry conditions.
Besides, such water shortage has left mango trees more susceptible to attacks by pests. For instance, a large number of plants have fallen prey to the borer pest in Srinivasapura taluk of Karnataka's Kolar district. Amid this scenario, only those who used micro-irrigation facilities have had a comparatively better crop this year. Tamil Nadu (tn) -- another important mango-growing state in the south -- appears to have bucked the trend. The joint director in the tn government's horticulture department, K Shanmugham, says that the mango crop's yield is not bad in the state.
Meanwhile, Sudesh Sachdev, ex-president of the Mango Growers' Association in New Delhi's Azadpur vegetable mart, believes that the quantity of mangoes arriving from the south will be much less this time. The shooting prices of mango varieties grown in the south are an indication of this, he asserts. It may be noted that mangoes from the south reach the market earlier than those grown in other places such as Uttar Pradesh (up), Bihar and West Bengal.
For the northern states, A S Rawat, general manager of the New Delhi-based Agricultural Products Export Development Authority, sounds a note of caution. He says that the pattern of abnormally high temperatures in these parts could spell doom for mango growers of this region also.
About 1500 varieties of mango are produced in India. Each of the better ones is identified by its unique taste and flavour. The most sought-after variety, Alphonso, is mainly cultivated in Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, Bulsar in Gujarat and in parts of Karnataka. Other popular ones like Dashehari, Langra, Bombay Green and Chausa are grown in up. Himsagar, also a premium variety, is cultivated in West Bengal. Banganapalli, Neelam, Bangalora and Swarnarekha abound in ap and tn. Alphonso, Dashehari and Banganapalli are exported to some countries.
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