Kangra farmers’ hopes of mango produce dashed

Rajiv Mahajan

NURPUR, APRIL 5

The inclement weather conditions, temperature fluctuations and unseasonal rainfall in March end have not only damaged standing wheat crops but also hit fruit growers in lower areas of Kangra district hard.

Mango is an alternative bearer crop and fruit growers in the area were expecting bumper mango crop this year but are now perturbed because of extensive crop loss due to bad weather. They are harried a lot as, they say, their mango orchards are facing adverse impact of inclement weather conditions for the past over one fortnight.

Mango flowers have been blackened which will adversely affect fruit setting and cause drastic reduction in fruit yield. Cold weather condition has threatened an attack of powdery mildew and blossom blight disease and attack of mango hopper, an insect which sucks mango flowers before setting fruits on the plants

As per an estimate, in lower Kangra area mango fruit is cultivated on over 11,000 hectares of land. Horticulture experts say that usually mango flowering begins from the first week to third week of March and fruit setting takes place in the last week of March but inclement weather and unseasonal rainfall in the last week of March have badly affected fruit flowering and fruit setting.

Dr Rajesh Kaler, Principal Scientist, Regional Horticulture Research Station, Nurpur, says the inclement weather will have little adverse impact if fruit growers had used spray with mixture of insecticide (Imidacloprid -50 ml) with fungicide (Hexaconazole- 100 ml) in 100 litres of water before flowering stage. He has also suggested same spray after fruit setting in mango crop. He said these sprays would check spread of blossom blight disease and curb attack of mango hopper insects on mango crop.

Progressive fruit growers Upender of Nagni, Kuljeet Rana of Pandrer and Daljeet Pathania and Manoj Pathania of Bassa-Waziran have lamented that over 70 per cent mango crop had been damaged due to unfavorable weather conditions. They have demanded relief to the affected fruit growers and said that the government should direct state horticulture department to assess crop loss.

Suresh Singh Pathania, president, Kangra district Bhartiya Kisan Union, has appealed to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to frame a policy for fruit growers in lower hills of the state and ensure affective implementation of crop insurance scheme so that fruit growers could get compensation for the losses due to natural calamities. He also demanded restoration of subsidy on all farm inputs like seed, fertilizers, insecticides and fungicides and an end to GST on fruit packaging material.

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