It isn’t just wheat that is at risk from the surge in temperatures since the middle of this month. At Pural village in Deogad taluka of Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district, Sudhir Gadi is concerned about the developing fruits in his 2,000-trees mango orchard spread over 20 acres.
In a normal year, the 55-year-old harvests about 750 mangoes from each of the trees, with the individual fruits weighing 300-350 gm. But with the mercury touching 38 degrees Celsius in his area, the fruits that have now reached about 200 gm are starting to drop off the trees.
“It began from yesterday. If the present temperatures continue for the next 7-10 days, I expect at least 25 per cent of the young fruits to drop off the stems that are wilting from exposure to the sun,” said Gadi, who has resorted to covering his trees with newspapers. It is a desperate measure with limited efficacy.
Chandrakant Mokal, president of the Maharashtra Mango Growers Association, projects the yield losses even higher at 40 per cent. “Our Konkan belt has only rarely in the past recorded maximum temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius and, that too, in the peak summer during May. But we are seeing that limit being crossed this time in February. Many farmers across Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Raigad have already started reporting fruit drop,” he told The Indian Express over phone from his orchard at Alibag in Raigad district.
Immature fruits dropping off mango trees
The three districts along Maharashtra’s Konkan coast are known for Alphonso, considered to be the “king of mangoes”. This variety of mango, locally called Hapus, has even received the government’s geographical indication tag protecting its identity as exclusive to the region.
Mangoes are a four-month-duration crop, from the time of flowering to harvesting of the mature fruits. The orchards in Sindhudurg start flowering from November, followed by those at Ratnagiri in December and further north at Raigad in January. Harvesting, then, takes place in March for Sindhudurg, April for Ratnagiri and May for Raigad.
“The flowering happened on time from the first week of November and so did fruit formation from early-January. My mangoes should have been accumulating pulp for at least the next few weeks till mid-March before Gudi Padwa (the Marathi New Year festival, which is scheduled on March 23). Instead, they are falling off before their time,” sighed Gadi.
Growers like him tend their trees from July onwards with the application of fertilisers and micronutrients near the trunk. Once flowering starts, they spray pesticides mainly to control aphids and thrips insects about twice a week, till the fruits are formed to the size of betel-nuts. There’s no fertiliser or chemical application after that.
The India Meteorological Department, in an advisory issued for Maharashtra’s mango growers on February 21, had urged them to ensure that the individual trees received about 100 litres of water per week and cover the area around the trunks with hay. This, it said, would protect the trees from heat shock and prevent fruit drop.
For now, though, farmers are counting losses even before their produce is harvested, leave alone hitting the market.