Tirupati: Winds blow away mango farmers' hopes

Tirupati: The gusty winds that lashed in district in two spells in the last one week dashed the hopes of thousands of mango farmers into ground with 80 percent of the crop ready for harvest damaged. The affected farmers were forced to sell the fallen mangoes at a throw away price to pulp industries and pickle units at Rs 5 a kg against the usual price of Rs 50 in the market due to damage to the crop.

Chittoor district is one of the leading mango producer in the state with the normal crop area in about 5 lakh acres (2.5 lakh hectares) but this year for one reasons or other the crop area fell steeply to just 1 lakh acre. The damage to mango crop was more in the mandals in the eastern part of district which bore the brunt of heavy winds causing extensive damage to the standing crop in the two districts. According to information reaching here, the damage to mango crop due to gusty wind is more in the mandals including Vedurukuppam, Puttur, Vadamalapeta, Bangarupalem and Chittoor Rural.

Federation of Farmers Association (FFA) state secretary Kothuru Babu said it is very sad that the farmers who spent a considerable amount lost the crop when it was ready, incurring heavy loss to them. The only way to save the farmers against the natural calamities is the state and Centre should introduce insurance to cover it against such natural calamities like cyclone, gusty winds and continuous dry spells, he said and strongly demanded the government to set Mango Board for the welfare of horticulture farmers. He also demanded to implement the Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) for Mango also with required funds allocation to protect the interest of farmers facing crop loss due to adverse conditions.

Speaking to The Hans India, Chittoor district Horticulture Deputy Director Srinivas said due to the gusty wind lashing the district, the loss was heavy to mango farmers. He said the total loss of crop will be known only after the assessment reports from mandals reach the headquarters.