Lucknow: The rise in temperature during the flowering season followed by incessant rain has destroyed a large part of the mango crop in Uttar Pradesh this year.
Due to bad weather, mango production in UP is expected to drop by 50 percent this year. Traders and cultivators predict that mango prices this year will be high and beyond the reach of the common man.
The problem for the mango crop began during the flowering season in February this year when the temperature was much above normal. Later, the incessant rain during March 16 to March 21 destroyed most of the crop.
Here is what mango growers have to stay:
According to the owner of Malihabad’s famous Nafees Nursery, Shabihul Hasan, 25 to 30 percent of mango flowers were destroyed due to the sudden rise in mercury in February-March, and the rains in the last week of March shattered all hopes of growers. He said that traders as well as cultivators might suffer significant losses this season due to the poor crop.
Another mango grower, Hakeem Trivedi, said that due to the rains in the last week of March, the mango trees were infected with black fungal disease, which caused significant damage to the crop. He added that insecticides sprayed on the mango trees were washed away due to rain, causing further damage.
Adverse weather conditions
The Central Institute of Subtropical Horticulture (CISH) has estimated the damage to the mango crop in UP to be around 25 percent. The damage in Malihabad is up to 35 percent, where strong winds and hailstorms also played a major role. The CISH constituted a team of scientists to assess the damage to the mango crop in eight UP districts, which submitted its report last week.
It may be noted that UP’s share is around 23 percent in the total mango production of the country. In UP, Dussehri, Langda, Chausa, and Safeda varieties of mango are produced. The estimated crop area of mango in UP is around 27 lakh hectares, and the annual production is about 45 lakh tonnes. The biggest mango-producing districts in UP are Lucknow, Sitapur, Barabanki, Varanasi, Saharanpur, Shamli, Baghpat, Chandauli, Basti, Gorakhpur, Bulandshaher, Bijnor, and Kushinagar.
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