This mango season brings no cheer to growers in the district. Occasional gales have their impact on flowering and whatever is left turns into fruit is smaller in size.
Speaking to The Hindu, M. Maddaiah, who has taken seven acres of land on lease in Orvakal, has said that the yield this year is very low. Mr. Maddaiah has taken the farm on lease for ₹2.90 lakh and per ton he has been getting a rate of ₹30,000. So far, he has been able to get about four tons of mango from the farm and expects to get another ton by the end of the season.
“We used to get 2-3 tons of mango per acre. This year we hardly got a ton,” laments Mr. Maddaiah. The low price of mango is due to the size which is small. Several factors like deficit rainfall coupled with fall in groundwater levels and defunct borewells impacted the crop. If the crop is good, the farmers would get about ₹50,000 to ₹60,000 per ton.
Apart from taking the farm on lease, about ₹8,500 per acre has been spent by farmers on purchase of fertilizers and pesticides.
In the case of Mr. Maddiah, his total investment is ₹3.50 lakh. And, so far he got only ₹1.20 lakh and expects to get ₹30,000 more only, a total of ₹1.50 lakh which is less than half the amount he invested.
‘Debts mounting’
“My family is already in the debt of ₹3 lakh, and to take the farm for lease next season, I will have to get more loan,” he says. “This is the only source of livelihood for us and unfortunately the debt burden has been mounting every year, he bemoans.