Are struggling with poor yield of mangoes due to excess heat, but there is also good news with new varieties being discovered
Farmers in Tamil Nadu
hen he noticed tamarind trees in his village bear plenty of fruit in January this year, P Rajkumar knew his mango yield would be poor. “This is the thumb rule my ancestors followed,” says the mango farmer based in Vanavasi in Salem district: that if tamarind trees are full of fruit, mango trees will be the opposite, and vice-versa. Mangoes this season, are not having a great run and there is a general sense of disappointment among farmers.
“In our district by the Western Ghats, mango farmers have seen only 10% of their usual yield,” says KS Jaganatha Raja, a farmer in Rajapalayam who sells mango saplings at his
Wnursery. “This is because of excess rains and now, excess heat. Owing to excess rains, all we got were new leaves instead of owers,” he explains, adding that some trees did ower, but they too dried up due to the heat.
Jaganatha owns a mango orchard spread across 12 acres near the foothills of the Western Ghats, where he grows and propagates several rare varieties. “The fruits have not matured enough, but fearing winds, farmers tend to get them harvested and sent to the market despite not getting good prices,” he adds. This results in traders resorting to using chemicals such as carbide and ethylene to get fruits to ripen quickly.
In his younger years, Rajkumar says his parents would place fruits inside straw, cover them with a jute sack, and leave them alone for a few days. “When they ripened, the household would be lled with the heady fragrance of mangoes,” recalls the 60-year-old who has around 550 mango trees, and grows imam pasand, Salem Bengalura, totapuri, neelam,
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In Salem, the quality of fruits is excellent; (below) Jaganatha Raja at his orchard in Rajapalayam. senthooram, and nadusalai mangoes. He is among the few farmers in the State who are managing to get a reasonable yield thanks to planning ahead. “Last year, we had good rains, and we are getting by, taking care of our trees and watering them su ciently,” he adds.
Rajkumar explains: “For mango trees to thrive, the di¢erence between day and night temperatures should not be more than 13 degree Celsius, but now, this exceeds 16 degree Celsius.”
In Salem, according to farmer Sathish Ramasamy, the quality of fruits is excellent, with many of them ripening fast. He sells what he harvests at his Sangagiri farm online, and has customers across
India. Sathish recommends varieties such as Salem Bengalura, nadusalai, panjavarnam, and the tiny but irresistibly sweet sakkarakutty.
From the orchard
Sathish also grows Miyazaki, said to be the most expensive mango in the world. A kilogram can cost around ₹15,000, and this year, he hopes to harvest the variety. “Some of my customers are fond of this variety. But if you ask me, it tastes just like senthooram mangoes,” he adds. Overall, mango prices have gone up by 30 to 40%. “Last year, we sold a kilogram of imam pasand for ₹200; whereas now, it costs around ₹300,” he says.
Sathish has just returned from harvesting mangoes in the searing heat and urges people to appreciate every mango that reaches their hands. “So much of e¢ort goes into each fruit, and people like us spend long hours in the sun to pluck and transport them,” he adds.
Baskar K, who owns a 40-acre orchard in Palani, where he grows around 500 mango trees organically, says he is set to harvest from May 15 onwards. “Since there was no ower to fruit conversion, there are only 10 to 15 fruits in my trees,” says Baskar, who has regular customers in Chennai and Bengaluru But he looks forward to see if his trees will yield fruits unseasonably. “This is a cycle; hopefully, next year, things will be better,” he says. For mangoes generally yield every alternate year.
Janganatha, meanwhile, continues to revive rare varieties at his farm. Last year, he happened to eat the tastiest mango he has ever had. “It was juicy, sweet, and had no bre at all. There is only one tree of the kind at a farm in Rajapalayam, and the owners did not know what variety it was. The tree came up where the farmer’s father threw a seed after eating a mango many decades ago,” he says. After summer, he is all set to graft and propagate 1,000 plants of this variety at his orchard. If things go well, this variety will soon get a name, and will perhaps reach our tables in a few years.
praveen.s@thehindu.co.in
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