Covid spells doom for mango growers in lower Kangra

No takers

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— There are no takers within or outside the state of their crop which is almost ready for marketing.

— Earlier, traders from other states thronged the area to negotiate the price of their stranding crops before the onset of the season in March itself.

— Considering the fear of covid, local traders are reluctant to visit mango orchards in Nurpur, Indora, Fatehpur, Jawali and Dehra sub divisions in lower Kangra valley.

— The state government’s mere announcement of support price of the fruit is not serving the purpose.

Rajiv Mahajan

NURPUR, June 2

The ongoing Covid19 pandemic has spelled doom for the mango growers in lower Kangra district as not even a single trader from outside the state has turned up to lift their produce from their orchards.

All hopes of fruit growers to make good earning due to a good crop have been dashed with no buyers. The prevailing uncertainty is giving them sleepless nights as mango is their main cash crop, earnings of which see them through the year.

There are no takers within or outside the state of their crop which will be ready for marketing within the next three weeks. Earlier, traders from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab thronged the area to negotiate the price of their stranding crops before the onset of the season in March itself.

Considering the fear of covid, local traders are reluctant to visit mango orchards in Nurpur, Indora, Fatehpur, Jawali and Dehra sub divisions in lower Kangra valley. The area has cycles of good crop alternate year. As this time it is a bumper crops, the losses too will be more.

Ironically, the successive and present state governments have failed to formulate any strategy to give impetus to mango production and protect interests of the growers. Unlike apple, mango is a perishable fruit and its timely marketing has become a major cause of concern for the growers in the present scenario.

The state government’s mere announcement of support price of the fruit is not serving the purpose for the unorganized sector of growers who have plenty of mango orchards in lower Kangra.

The growers are producing ‘dashehari’, ‘langra’, ‘chausa’, ‘sindoori’, ‘malta’, ‘shahad ki kupi’ and and Bombay green varieties of mango fruit. Progressive fruit growers – Mukesh Sharma of Chhatrolli and Manoj Pathania of Bassa Waziran, Pawan Sharma of Sadwan and Naresh Pathania of Suliali have appealed to the state government to take immediate steps for marketing of their produce.

Pritam Minhas of Nagni and Arjun Sen of Giora, other mango growers, have underlined the need to set up fruit processing unit so that growers could get permanent solution for the marketing woes.

Meanwhile, Suresh Pathania, Kangra district president of Bharitya Kisan Union, has asserted that the government support must be there so as to supplement income of not just growers but even others like transporters, labourers benefit from it.

The area under cultivation of mango crops is – Indora 6,772.17 hec, Nurpur- 3,767.16 hec, Jawali- 1,943.70 hec, Dehra- 1,520.71 hec and Fatehpur- 680.44 hec.

Caption: The orchard with bumper mango crop in Nurpur waiting for buyers of the produce. Tribune photo