This year mango lovers in Uttar Pradesh will have to wait a little bit longer to enjoy Dussehri and other mango variants. Due to unseasonal rain in March and April, the mango crops in the belt of Uttar Pradesh have suffered a 30% loss. Buyers will have to shell out at least Rs. 20 more per kg for Dussehri.
This year, the initial flowering in January and February did not bear any fruit and rain in the later months led to crop damage. At present, mangoes are almost the size of a grape and will take longer than usual to ripen and will be available in the market only by the second week of June.
Every year, the plucking of the fruits starts in May, but it might take 15 more days this year. Due to unseasonal rain, nearly 4 lakh hectares of the mango belt in Uttar Pradesh have been affected including many desi and commercial varieties. Saharanpur’s Chausa, Safeda and Lucknow’s Dussehri have been equally affected.
Local growers say that this year, Malihabad got only 60% to 70% bunch of flowers. Every year, Malihabad produces 5 lakh metric tonnes of mango, but, this year, there will be a reduction of 30% in the produce. It gets difficult for a mango crop to survive in extreme temperatures. Due to long winters and fluctuating temperatures since January, the formation of mango buds was affected.
Image Credit (lucknowpulse.com)
