Kesar mango crop likely to be delayed for market

Talala (Rajkot), April 10 : With the arrival of summer, Kesar mangoes flood the markets in Gujarat. But this year the luscious mangoes will be delayed by a month.

Kesar mangoes are likely to reach markets only around first week of May. The untimely rains and the cold wave have delayed the ripening of the fruit.

Earlier, around mid-April, for 45 days at a stretch, the market yards in Talala would receive 35,000 boxes of Kesar mangoes per day with each box containing at least 10 kilograms of the king of fruits.

This year, however, the wholesale market is yet to receive even the first supply of these mangoes from the orchard owners and mango growers.

According to mango growers, it will take one more month before they can pluck the mangoes from the trees.

The mango crop is expected to be only one third of last year's yield.

Shamsuddinbhai of Talala Sir, who has several awards to his credit for a record mango production, also believes that the fruits have been badly affected. He says the weather played a spoilsport for all.

He says: "The flowers and the fruits have been damaged and the mangoes are coming late in the trees due to unexpected rains and the severe cold that we experienced earlier."

"The flowers were seen before the season but due to severe cold, the temperature fell to 6 degrees from 15 degrees which resulted in the failure of the crop," he added.

Nur Alibhai, owner of Anil Farm noted that due to such meagre production, it is very unlikely that Kesar can be exported this year.

"Last year there was a huge demand of our mangoes in the international market but, this year, we don't expect that we will be able to supply the mangoes to foreign countries," said Nur Alibhai, owner of a mango orchard.

Veteran mango grower Abdul Gaffar Quereshi, winner of the President's award hoped that the Government would rescue the farmers and orchard owners from incurring losses.

"There is crop insurance for other crops but why not for mangoes, asked the veteran mango grower, who is into mango cultivation for four decades.

"The farmers, who cultivate Rabi and Kharif (cash) crops on their lands, have the benefit of insurance for their crops and are safe. But the Government has never thought about any insurance policy for the mango growers," observed Abdul Gaffar Qureshi, owner of a mango orchard, Talala.

The fruits, which are likely to be available in the market, would be from the trees that bloomed in the last phase of the flowering season, January and February.

Kesar trees require the cool temperature at night with warm sunlight during the daytime for mango fruits to grow, before ripening time.

ANI