Weather plays spoilsport for mango

Irregularity of weather severely affected flowering of mango in Malda district, famous for the fruit, as flowers have been seen in only 20 per cent of the trees.

Such low flowering could have an adverse impact on the economy of the district, said the district’s Mango development officer Samarendra Nath Khanda.

Mango, an important aspect of Malda’s economy, is produced in abundance every alternate year.

The district did not witness much cold this winter, the orchards were covered by fog for ten days at a stretch in January and absence of the west wind — these were the reasons cited by Khanda for this exceptionally low flowering.

Only new trees, and none of the old ones, have flowered and there was no chance of any more flowering, he said. The only silver lining is that the ‘Lakshmanbhog’ variety has started showing flowers.

Every part of the district has been affected and the worst hit areas are Ratua, Manikchak, Chanchal and Englishbazar.

Despite being an ‘off year’, last year’s production was a record 190,000 tonnes.

About 260,000 people were directly and indirectly involved with the production of mango in the district, where orchards can be found on 26,000 hectare of land.

A number of varieties of mangoes — Aswini, Himsagar, Langra, Fazli, Gopalbhog — are found in Malda district and its earning from export, mainly to Bangladesh, is about Rs 120 crore, Khanda said.

Token exports were also being made to countries in Europe and West Asia.

The fruit may arrive late this summer in Gujarat also. According to experts, the arrival of mango in the state could be as late as 15-20 days due to irregular winter which seems to have damaged the flowering.

As per the Junagadh Agriculture University, the winter had been erratic this year leaving damaged flowers of mango, especially of the 'Kesar' variety in Saurashtra region of Gujarat.