Price of king of fruits soars high

Price of king of fruits soars high
….Bad weather affected flowering decreases mango production
Hemanta Kumar Pradhan

Mango trees, leaves and fruits are attached with the sentiment of the people in several cultures of India. The hay days of childhood in the dense mango grooves of granny’s farmhouse and memorable swing on the happy happy boughs of mango trees are now a business and source of economy.

India is the largest mango producer in the world. It contributes over 55 percent of total world production. Here mango grows in approximately 2.3 crore hectare of land. Major producers of mango in the country are Andhra Pradesh (25.48), Uttar Pradesh (21.32), Karnataka (9.86), Bihar (9.75), Gujarat (6.45), Maharashtra (5.09), Tamilnadu (4.29), West Bengal (4.09), Kerala (4.08), Odisha (3.42) and others (6.45) percent of total production in the country. India also produces largest varieties of mangoes such as Alphonso, Banganapalli, Kesar, Langra, Chausa, Mallika, Amrapalli and Dussheri are the most popular varieties from across the country. Among these, Alphonso is a tasty and widely popular variety abroad and 40 percent of the produce is usually exported to the Middle-east, the USA, the Europe and the UAE.

Last year the country witnessed a bumper crop. The total mango production during 2010 was 15,025.7 lakh tonnes, but this year the mango production will decrease comparing to last year due to lingering cool weather, said an official of National Horticulture Board (NHB).

“The flowering is good this year however, the long winter season causing lingering cool temperature and hailstorms are likely to affect the fruiting, bringing the production down almost to last years’ level,” said NHB Managing Director Bijay Kumar.

Major producer of the country, Andhra Pradesh has been badly hit by the untimely rains which produces mostly Banganapalli, and Pandupalli varieties of mango. Like that, the production of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra also affected by unfavourable weather conditions at the time of flowering.

According to the Directorate of Horticulture, Odisha, this year the mango production in Odisha is likely to dip 30 to 40 percent comparing the last years 5.77 lakh MT.

Earlier, farmers had expected a bumper crop seeing the flowering, but the untimely rain and foggy condition put an end to all the expectations. The damage was very huge. Later now flowers came on mango trees but the quality was very low, said a farmer of Palur area near Berhampur, Odisha.

According to the Directorate of Horticulture, the reasons of less productions are-
First, unseasonal rain at the stage of flowering may destroy the crop. After bearing of fruit, it’s a boom. Apart from that, heavy windfall also destroys the crop. Second, the sootymold or attack of mango hopper affected inflorescence of mango plant lead to destruction of flowers. Third, most of the north Indian varieties have varietal characteristics of a bumper crop in one year gap. This year is a gap. In Odisha, most of the mango trees are old type and of Desi (country made) varieties. In this variety, the yield is not good every year. But in south India, the varieties like Totapuri, Banganapalli, Neelum, Pandupalli are the regular bearers. Besides these, some hybrid varieties like Amrapalli, Mallika, Ratna and others are the regular bearers grows in almost all the mango producing states.

The hubs of mango marketing in Odisha are Berhampur and Bhubaneswar, which imports most of the varieties of mangoes from Andhra Pradesh, because the Desi varieties and state productions were not available at the time of its reach and it has a greater demand in the state. Second reason is- in western Odisha, Koraput and Sambalpur exports their production through contract auction to Andhra and Rayapur respectively. Like that, Mayurbhanj exports Himsagar variety to Kolkata and Dhenkanal exports Dussheri varieties to Lucknow. This variety of Odisha hits the Lucknow market in May 15-20, whereas in UP, this type takes more time to ripening. So its demand is very high there.

15 to 17 wholesellers and more than 100 retailers in Bhubaneswar and 82 wholesellers and various retailers in Berhampur are meeting the demand of the people in the city and also exporting to other places of Odisha.

This year mango production is less, so the demand will increase accordingly the rate. As there is no local supply from the state, we import from outside. The demand of Banganapalli, Sindhri, Akhurasa, Pandupalli, Amrapalli is very high than others in the market, said a wholeseller Kuna of Baba Kapilnath Fruits, Bhubaneswar.

Odisha is lacking behind in mango production as compared to national level. So the Government should take appropriate steps to modernise from plantation to post harvesting and marketing. According to Directorate of Horticulture, Odisha, within 6 years 95,000 hectares of land was used for plantation of mango trees in the state by National Horticulture Mission (NHM). Now the NHM directed to the state to give emphasis on post-harvesting of mango. Recently, Govt. planned for plantation of mango trees through MGNREGA programme.

Directorate of Horticulture, Odisha is going to organise a mango festival to create enthusiasm among the farmers for mango farming and to aware them of the varieties and farming in different parts of the State. This innovative ways may help to increase the production not only the state, but also in the whole country.