Poor mango crop prospects worry farmers

Vikarabad: Mango crop in Vikarabad, Tandur and Parigi Assembly constituencies shows poor prospect as the flowers are falling off the trees at the inflorescence stage. Even if some of the flowers progress to next stage of baby mangoes, they too are falling off in spite of application of various pesticides and fungicides.

1. In Puduru mandal, the crop is raised in 1500 acres to reap benefits in current summer.
2. In Vikarabad, Parigi and Tandur regions, the crop is raised in 1000 acres.
3. In Tandur mandal, the crop is raised in Kotlapur, Sirigiripet, Belkatur and Gopanpalli.
4. In Yalala mandal, Lakshmi Narayanpur, Agganur, Doulapur and Kokat village’s farmers pinned hopes on the crop.

The farmers are concerned over the bleak crop prospects because of the damage caused at the stage of inflorescence and baby mango formation.

According to reports, brothers Gandla Mallikarjun and Sekhar raised mango orchard in 6.6 acres three years ago and nursed the plantation exercising all the care and kept the cattle at bay. This year they are anticipating reaping good harvest as the orchard is in full bloom. Their happiness did not last long. Soon, the mango flowers started falling off the tree.

They also noticed baby mangoes all around the tree trunk. To prevent this phenomenon, they incurred thousands of rupees of expenditure and sprayed pesticides. The farmers consulted the local agriculture dealers and sprayed pesticides incurring expenditure not less than Rs 50,000 each. They look towards the government for relief.

In Kotlapur, farmers sprayed the pesticide six times during the past six months to prevent falling off of flowers. The farmers have been urging the horticulture department officials to undertake field visit and issue necessary instructions to farmers to prevent falling off mango flowers and baby mangoes.