The erratic climatic conditions, torrential downpour, barely-there winter and now the COVID-19 outbreak leading to labour problem — all these have had an impact on the yield of mangoes and their distribution.
Poor yield
The mango farmers and the owners of orchards say that the yield this year is between 5-30 per cent. Chandrakant Rajpurkar, a bagayatdar (orchard owner) from Kelshi, says, “The farmers are in a sorry state. We were expecting at least 60-70 per cent yield, but what we got is about 30 per cent. And now the lockdown has added to our difficulties. We have permission from the government to sell the fruit, but the delivery and supply process has gaps. People are restricted from stepping out. So who is going to buy? The big markets like APMC in Vashi are shut, we don’t have permission to set up stalls. We can manage only if we have some acquaintances /contacts living in housing societies in big cities like Pune and Mumbai. But not all the housing societies are co-operative.”
Unlike other agricultural produce, which can be sown and reaped again, mangoes are the fruits of nearly 10-month long labour. “If the yield goes down the drain, we can’t sow it again. We expect some returns in these two months after ten months of labour,” he adds.
Ashok Paranjape, a banker-turned-organic mango farmer, points out, “In 2018, I had got a yield of 70 crates of mangoes. In 2019, it went down to five crates. This year is better than in 2019 in terms of yield. When we term ‘overall’ growth, we don’t get yield from all the mango trees ever. They flower alternate years. For e.g., if I have 50 trees, in the first year, 25 of them will be laden with fruit and next year, the remaining 25.”
“Seventy per cent of the mangoes are ready, they are ripe, but they haven’t been plucked from the trees,” says Rajpurkar, adding, “People thought the lockdown will be lifted from April 15, after which they can get some labour as help, but now the period has been extended again. If we don’t pluck the fruit, it’s going to get spoilt.”
The farmer, who is also the director of Amba Sahakar Society, plans to travel to Pune and sell the mangoes at a few housing societies where he knows some people. “I hope to sell at least 20 per cent of my yield in this way. I don’t know what to do about the rest,” he adds.
Eco-system of buyers and sellers
The Devgad Alphonso comes to the markets earlier — by March while the crop grown in north Ratnagiri is ready to be marketed in May. Vinay Joshi, who owns 200 mango trees, says, “From Dapoli taluka, 75 per cent of mangoes are sold through private channels (not through markets) in Pune, Mumbai, Nashik, Sangli and Satara. Twenty-five per cent is made available in Vashi’s APMC market, and five per cent is made available for local canning factories.”
Before the outbreak of coronavirus, the growers were expecting that they will get a better price because the yield was low this year. Also, the north Ratnagiri fruit comes to market when the Devgad yield is sold, or towards the end of the season. Both specimens were hoping to sell well.
Gaurav Gogate, who grows Devgad hapus (Alphonso), says, “The sale was affected because the lockdown was announced at March-end. Also, we didn’t get proper winter this year. Usually, in November-December, a fortnight’s cold is enough for the mango trees to blossom. This time, they reflowered twice or thrice, and we lost a lot of crops.
Some of the farmers from Devgad managed to send their crop to the APMC market when it was open for a couple of days. Most of the hapus, about 60-70 per cent from APMC, is meant for export. But since we are not exporting anything, the farmers were not getting an assurance of a certain rate. We usually have a good sale in Pune, other markets of Mumbai, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, but the areas within these cities were sealed when the coronavirus cases emerged there. So the orders which we had got from these cities had to be cancelled. No one was willing to transport the goods there,” adds Gogate.
“One private transporter from Murdi, near Anjarle, took some crates for delivery in Pune, and on his return, he was quarantined by the villagers. The villagers look at people who have made trips to Pune and Mumbai with suspicion,” says Joshi.
The owners and farmers also make a tidy sum when tourists visit Konkan. “In a recent trend, mango growers would sell the fruits on the roadside to tourists who came to Anjarle, just the way in Harne, fresh fish is sold. In this region, the fruit is sold in kilos. At the peak of the season, you get it for Rs 25-30 per kg. But due to the time and labour involved in ripening of the fruit, packing, transportation through private deliveries, the rate goes up to Rs 200 per dozen. But now that the supply chain is completely hit, the situation is bleak,” adds Joshi.
The farmers cannot predict the consumer’s behaviour pattern even after the lockdown is lifted. “With the little Devgad fruit that is available in the market, the farmers are able to make Rs 400 per dozen. It might vary as per volume and the area in which it is being sold. And, in the APMC market when it was open, the farmers got Rs 500-700 per crate which contains about four-five dozens of mangoes,” informs Gogate.
