May, June dry spell hits mango crop in Kangra

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, July 4

The prolonged dry spell during May and June after fruit setting has affected the mango crop in Kangra district. Neither the size of the fruit has increased nor its quality improved due to this. Mango, a cash crop, plays an important role in the economy of farmers and fruit growers of the district. The crop that was supposed to sell in the wholesale market for Rs 35 to 50 per kg is fetching Rs 20 to 30 per kg due to the small size of the fruit.

Hopes of hundreds of fruit growers, who had been expecting a bumper crop this year, have been dashed due to the smaller fruit size.

Not only the growers, but fruit traders, who had struck deals for the standing crop before harvesting, are going to suffer huge financial loss as the produce is not fetching them attractive rates in the local as well as fruit markets in the neighbouring states.

Mango is an alternative bearer crop and the fruit growers in the lower Kangra hills, comprising Nurpur, Indora, Jawali and Fatehpur subdivisions, were expecting good crop this year. Before the fruit setting, cold weather caused an attack of powdery mildew, besides blossom blight disease and attack of mango hopper, an insect which sucks on mango flowers.

As per an estimate, mango is grown over 21,000 hectares of land in Kangra, including 11,000 hectares in the lower areas of the district.

Progressive fruit growers Upender from Nagni, Kuljeet Rana from Pandrer and Daljeet Pathania and Naresh Singh from Geora village lamented that the smaller fruit size had been fetching them around 50 per cent price in the market. Suresh Singh Pathania, district president of Bhartiya Kisan Union, has appealed to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu to frame a policy for the fruit growers in the lower hills and ensure effective implementation of the crop insurance scheme so that they could get compensation for the losses incurred by weather-induced factors.

Kamal Sen Negi, Deputy Director, Horticulture, Dharamsala, said the department was expecting a production of 24,000 metric tonnes of mango this year, but the prolonged dry spell had affected the fruit quality. He said last year, the district had produced 16,800 metric tonnes of mango.