Konkan mangoes see sharp decline in crop harvest

THANE: Sudden climatic changes and pest attacks have seen a sharp decline of nearly 40-50% in harvest of Konkan mango crop, including the popular Haapus over the last three years with cultivators claiming that barely 20% of the produce would be salvaged this year, BJP MLA Sanjay Kelkar said Tuesday.
Kelkar was addressing the media along with few cultivators from Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and representatives of Konkan regional NGOs ahead of a mango festival to be held in Thane starting May 2.
“While nearly 3.2 lakh tonne mango crop was harvested in 2020, the numbers shrunk to just 1.2 lakh tonne last year. The mango crop is cultivated on nearly 1.25 lakh hectares in the Konkan region. Several cultivators told us they could manage to harvest barely 20% of their average crop output this year which has been worst hit since the last few years. Unseasonal rains, heat waves and attacks from pests especially in organic farms are the main reasons for the slump,” Kelkar said.
Vaibhav Vedak, a mango cultivator and trader from Thane with farms in Ratnagiri said they witnessed a drop in production this year which was much less than their average harvest every year. "The unseasonal rains and erratic climate changes played a major role for destroying a major volume of crop," he said.
The situation was reflected at the Vashi APMC market also where the drop of mangoes from Konkan region was noticeable.
“While last year, we saw nearly 70,000 boxes coming from Konkan, this year we saw only 18,000 boxes coming in. The sudden heat wave in the early part of the year seems to have affected the peak summer crop output. However, the demand has been met by arrival of mangoes from South states that saw a rise from 15K boxes last year to 50K this season,” informed Sanjay Pansare, mango trader and APMC director.