Gujarat: Valsadi hafoos ripens, but no one to pluck

SURAT: Whether mango lovers would be able to gorge on their favourite Valsadi hafoos (alphonso) this season is a big question now.
Orchard owners in Valsad, the hub of this mango variety, are unable to harvest the ripened fruits as traders and workers from Uttar Pradesh (UP), who have been traditionally tasked with this work, are unable to come due to lockdown.
For over three decades now, UP traders bring along workers to south Gujarat and they are leased out the orchards for plucking and selling the mangoes in local markets as wells to food processors and exporters.
“I have nearly 300 tonnes of mangoes on 9,000 trees that are almost ripe. If they are not plucked before May 20-30, we are going to face a huge loss,” said Vijay Patel, whose orchard is spread across 100 bighas in Anjalav village of Valsad. Patel, whose family is into mango farming for eight decades, had leased his orchard for Rs 2 crore last year to a UP trader.
Almost 90% of the mango farmers in Valsad are dependent on UP traders for plucking and trading of the mangoes. According to an estimate, at least 10,000 people from UP arrive in Valsad during the mango harvesting season.
The orchard owners even tried getting tribal workers from interior villages of Dharampur and Dang for plucking. However, fearing arrest by police they are unwilling to come. It is impossible to bring 60 workers in a transport vehicle due to section 144 and social distancing rules.
‘Bringing workers from villages is unaffordable’
I tried to bring tribals from Dharampur, which is just 40km away from my orchard, to pluck the mangoes. But, only four workers were allowed in the tempo due to social distancing norm. I can’t bear the transportation costs of bringing more workers” said Jayanti Patel, a farmer from Bhomapardi village in Valsad.
While lakhs of migrants from UP are desperate to return to their natives, thousands of traders there are keen to come here as soon as possible.
Munnabhai, a resident of Jamatali village in Pratapgarh district of UP, has been keeping mango orchards in Valsad on lease for the past two decades.“I should have been in the orchards these days, but due to lockdown I am unable to move our. We will also have to suffer a huge loss,’’ Munnabhai told TOI.
“Our business is to take the orchards on lease, pluck the mangoes and trade in Gujarat and Maharashtra. This year we are helpless,” said Mohammed Ali, another trader from UP.
According to horticulture department officials, Valsadi hafoos is cultivated on 96,519 hectare area in seven districts of South Gujarat, the highest, 36,103 hectare in Valsad district alone.