Mango Farmers in Telugu States Staring at Sharp Fall in Yield This Year

 Hyderabad: With rains playing truant in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state last year, the climate going haywire, and under a pest attack, mango farmers are staring at an abysmally low produce this season. The effect is starkly visible in the perennially drought-prone erstwhile Chittoor district area which has around 1.2 lakh hectares under the crop.

B. Madhusudhan Reddy, deputy director, horticulture, Chittoor district, said that there were no rains from August to November. “The growth of new twigs and leaves. Cloudy weather in December due to the cyclone effect also led to fall in day temperatures reducing the difference in day and night temperatures.”

The average yield will be just three tonnes per hectare this year last year per hectare against 12.5 tonnes last year, the lowest on record. The 32 processing units in the district need up to five lakh tonnes of mangoes but the produce in the full season may not exceed 1.8 lakh tonnes in the erstwhile Chittoor district.

Horticulture scientist D. Sreenivasulu Reddy, citrus research station, Dr YSR Horticulture University, Tirupati said that mangoes needed a minimum temperature of about 16ºC to 17º Centigrade rose to 19-20ºC. This was the main reason for reduction in flowering to 20 to 30 per cent of the normal.

“Thrips, a sucking pest which had affected chillies earlier, migrated to mangoes this year. This pest multiplies faster when the days are warmer. It has hit Khammam, Warangal, Nagarkurnool and the outskirts of Hyderabad also, Sreenivasulu Reddy added.

B. Vasudeva Reddy, a mango farmer, from Abbireddivuru of Poothalapattu mandal of Chittoor district, was expecting just about three tonnes of mango this year, against the norm. “I will end up spending `6 lakh by the end of the season on my 12-acre mango garden on pesticides and labour,” said Vasudeva Reddy, whose family works on the farm. He said the pesticides available in the market were not able to contain the pests.

M. Venkatarami Reddy, a farmer from Madithativaripalli in Nerabilu gram panchayat in Tirupati district, said that the trader who bought his 22-acre garden for Rs 4.5 lakh could face losses.

His fellow villager M. Janardhan Reddy, who owns an eight-acre farm, said he would hardly get two tonnes of mangoes, while it was 40 tonnes on average every year.

The experience of M. Krishnaiah, mango farmer from Bollaram village, Veepanagandla mandal of Wanaparthy district in Telangana is no different. “The rates could be higher as the yield is less this year,” he said.

N.R. Ehsanulla, president of Damalacheruvu Mango Mandi Traders Association in Tirupati district, who also owns a 25-acre mango farm, said , “I used to earn Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh every year selling mangoes but might incur loss this year,” he said, having spent `4 lakh on his farm.

K. Govardhan Bobby, chairman, All India Food Processors Association, South Zone, said, “Disturbances in the Red Sea owing to pirates affected export of pulp last year. The value of the pulp which has a shelf life of two years falls after the first year. The buyers are expecting us to foot the additional cost of transport through distant shipping routes. The low mango produce this year is only adding to our woes.”