The high-intensity dust storms that lashed across the mango belt in the state have affected almost 50 per cent of the mango crop.
Lucknow: The inclement weather conditions prevailing in UP, particularly thunderstorms, will make the “aam aadmi” pay a higher price for “aam”, the king of fruit, this year.
The high-intensity dust storms that lashed across the mango belt have affected almost 50 per cent of the mango crop.
“Almost 2 to 3 million tones of mango crop have fallen off before reaching the ripening stage. This implies that half of the popular varieties of mango like ‘Dussheri’ and ‘Langda’ will not reach the market. The supply to the domestic market will suffer and here will be an adverse impact on the exports too,” said Insram Ali, president of the Mango Growers’ Association.
Mr Ali said that the sale of raw mangoes was not as brisk as expected and growers were being forced to sell off the fallen fruit at throwaway rates.
“We do not have sufficient food processing units here which can make pickles etc. from raw mangoes and domestic demand is not very high,” he explained.
The state government, meanwhile, refuses to believe that mango growers have lost almost 50 per cent of the crop.
Horticulture director R.P. Singh said that only the orchards in Agra had reported about 33 per cent damage of mango crop, while the loss in the Lucknow belt was only around six per cent.
Mr Ali said that in 2017, the prices of Dussheri and Langda mangoes in Lucknow were around Rs 40 a kg but this year, the mangoes are likely to be sold up to Rs 80 per kg.
