With rising temperatures driving away the winter and a number of warmth waves for the reason that begin of the yr, mango farmers within the Konkan area of Maharashtra — house to the Alphonso selection — are a apprehensive lot.
Mandar Khedkar, who has three orchards in Sangameshwar and Ratnagiri talukas of Ratnagiri district, says his mango bushes haven’t seen any flowering or fruit formation post-December. The present harvest season will likely be over by early April, however his bushes might not bear fruit. “This yr, my produce has gone down by 75 per cent. Even on the present value, which is double that of final yr, it could not cowl the price of manufacturing,” he says.
Khedkar will not be positive if he’ll make the journey to the Pune market to promote his Alphonso mangoes. “The present charge at Pune’s market is round Rs 6,000-7,000 for a field of 4 dozen mangoes. It’s tough to get prospects at this charge — however the actual story is that I shouldn’t have sufficient amount to cowl the price of transport and different bills,” he says.
Vivek Bhide, chairman of the Konkan Hapus Amba Utpadak Vikreta Sahakari Sanstha — the organisation which represents the Alphonos or Hapus growers from the area — says solely 30 per cent of the common produce could also be obtainable for shoppers this yr. He blames this on the absence of winter.
Winter is a vital season for the physiology of the mango plant. It’s throughout the winter months that the vegetation begin flowering, adopted by fruit formation inside 60 days.
Relying on the “remedy” — together with software of fertilisers and development promoters — mango bushes can flower twice or thrice, making certain fruit formation until Might.
However, for the reason that begin of the yr, the Konkan area of Maharashtra (together with Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Raigad districts) has witnessed a number of warmth waves, with common day temperatures hovering above 39 levels. The India Meteorological Division (IMD) has issued warmth wave warnings for the area a number of occasions for the reason that first week of March.
Story continues beneath this advert
Even earlier than the warmth waves started, farmers complained of the absence of winter. All this has resulted in extreme fruit dropping, or untimely shedding of fruit, say farmers.
Based on Bhide, most orchards haven’t reported a lot flowering after November-December. “For the markets to have wholesome provide from about March onwards, we must always have flowering in February-March. Often, markets are flooded with mangoes by Might, and plenty of farmers ship their produce to juice and pulp producers. This yr, I don’t see that occuring,” he says.
At Mumbai’s wholesale markets, merchants say the availability of mangoes is lower than common. Sanjay Pansare, a dealer, says the availability of mangoes normally begins from January, with the season selecting up after March 15. “However this yr, the arrival of mangoes is absolutely sluggish. What we collect is that the season will begin from April 4 and recover from by mid-Might. The truth is, the manufacturing for the entire season could also be restricted to that window,” he says.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘444470064056909’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
