Vijayawada: Mango season brings cheers to farmers

Vijayawada: Mango farmers in Krishna district are optimistic of earning profits this mango season due to good yield of high-quality fruits.

Mango is one of the important horticulture crops in the Krishna district with farmers growing mangoes in over 70,000 hectares.

Nuzvid Banginapalli variety mangoes are well known for taste and quality. Due to favourable weather conditions particularly due to heavy rainfall last year, the mango crop is getting good moisture that helps to grow quality fruit.

Nuzvid, Tiruvuru, Mylavaram, Chatrai, Vissannapeta, Agiripalli, Reddigudem and other mandals are famous for mango crop. Last year, mango farmers could not earn profits due to the lockdown as many restrictions were imposed in the villages to check the spread of corona pandemic.

Due to total lockdown no outside labour was allowed into villages for nearly four months from March to June. This resulted in labour not being available to harvest the crop. Several tonnes of mango could not be exported to other States due to lack of transport facility. The truck drivers also refused to go to other states because of quarantine restrictions implemented in many parts of the country. But, this year the scenario is different. Labour can go to the mango garden without hurdles for the harvest.

Assistant Director of horticulture Ch Srinivasulu, Nuzvid, said that the mango fruit should be protected from pest and bad weather conditions. "The state government has supplied over one crore fruit covers to the farmers on subsidy price of 70 per cent. The crop is in the flowering stage in many areas," he said.

D Raghuram, a mango farmer in Agiripalli village, said mangoes which are grown with fruit covers have good demand in North India and traders come forward to offer better prices. He is optimistic the farmers would get good profits this year due to the quality yield.

Recalling the problems he faced last year, Raghuram said the mango farmers could not harvest the crop due to the corona pandemic. Traders from other States also did not come to Vijayawada and Nuzvid mango markets to purchase the fruits.

Banginapalli and Totapuri are two important varieties of mango crop in Krishna district. Totapuri is used for making mango juice and Banginapalli is consumed directly by the buyers. Mango farmers are requesting the government to give subsidies on mango covers so that small farmers, who cultivate in one or two acres can use the cover to protect the crop from pests and bad weather.

B Dayakar Babu, assistant director, Horticulture, Vijayawada, said some North Indian traders have offered more than Rs 1 lakh per tonne of mangoes which were grown with covers against the average price of Rs 70,000 per tonne. He said the season has just started and will continue till May.