Though mangoes start appearing on the retail fruit sellers’ shelves by late March, this year the fruit has remained conspicuous by its absence at the start of the second week of April.
The immediate reason is not the lockdown declared by the government to keep COVID-19 at bay. Climatic conditions marked by unseasonal rainfall and change in night-time temperatures have been cited as reasons for not only delay in hitting the markets but also a huge decline in yield.
While the yield will be limited, the harvesting of mangoes will also have to be staggered over the next two months, according to experts. “Mangoes require a good drought and harsh winter. But, they got neither of them,” said C.G. Nagaraju, MD of Karnataka State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation Ltd., referring to the unseasonal rain lashing the State last year followed by a relatively warm winter. “We did not see the night-time temperature dip below 12 degrees on many days,” he said. The climatic conditions had led to delayed and poor flowering.
“Overall, the yield is expected to be only 50% this year,” Mr. Nagaraju said. Mango orchards spread across 1.8 lakh lakh hectares of land in Karnataka – more concentrated in Kolar, Chickballapur, Ramanagaram, and other parts of Bengaluru rural in South parts, and Dharwad and Belagavi in the northern parts – can yield 12 to 14 lakh tonnes of fruit a year, he said.
Rudresh Kumar, Deputy Director of Horticulture, Mysuru, said climatic conditions across the State that were marked by rain in November and December last year impacted the flowering process. “We can’t expect even 50% of the crop this year,” he said. The yield is expected to be in the range of 30% to 40% in Sindhura, Malgova, Mallika, and Raspuri, about 50% in Badami and more than 60% in Totapuri.
While the fruit is expected to be harvested in Ramanagaram and made available across markets in Bengaluru in a week to 10 days’ time, mangoes from Kolar and Chickballapur will have to wait till the first week of May to hit the market because of delayed flowering in the region. But the crop in Kolar-Chickballapur, the biggest hubs of mango cultivation in the State, has been further affected by the mango hopper pest attack in the first week of March. “The yield in the twin districts may not even be 15% of the expectation,” said K. Srinivas Gowda, president, Chickballapur Mango Growers’ Association. “Despite our best efforts to control the pest attack, the damage has already been done,” he said.
Fingers crossed
Mango growers are keeping their fingers crossed that the lockdown is lifted by the time they harvest their crop.
Merchant Farooq Pasha from Mysuru said not only will they be hit by poor yield, they may have to cough up more for transportation if the lockdown is not lifted by harvest time. “Even though transportation of farm products is permitted, the transportation cost has gone up during lockdown,” he said.
However, C.G. Nagaraju said they had already begun the process of facilitating direct marketing of mangoes to customers in Bengaluru by providing the contact details of apartments to farmers.
Non-table varieties like Totapuri, Sindhura, Badami, and Neelam are mainly consumed by processing plants, all of which are now shut due to the lockdown. “These varieties will come up for harvest only by mid-May. By then, we hope the processing plants are up and running. If not, farmers in Kolar and Chickballapur will suffer huge losses,” said K. Srinivas Gowda, president, Chickballapur Mango Growers’ Association.