Rain Gods fury hits mango farmers hard

Unseasonal rains wreak havoc in Mahabubnagar district; huge loss reported

Mahabubnagar: In what came like a bolt from the blue, the unseasonal rains that suddenly hit the district wreaked havoc, destroying several fruit plantations and other crops, resulting in huge loss to the farmers. Vast areas of mango plantations have been damaged in Kollapur mandal this year due to heavy rains. As a result, there is a severe shortage of mangoes in the market.

Kollapur is famous for producing mangoes which are grown on thousands of acres of land. During this year, mangoes were grown in 10,840 acres in Mahabunagar constituency, which runs into 4,336 hectares and in each acre, 70 saplings were planted. Among these, there are two types of mango plants, Benisha and Dakkari, which are very tasty and have huge demand in the markets across the State.

As the river Krishna flows by the district and large tracts of sands are available, mangoes are grown in large numbers in the district and 10,000 farmers are dependent on on mango plantations for their livelihood. However, due to the unseasonal hailstorms, 42 % of the mangoes have been damaged, badly hitting the livelihood of the farmers.

Mango fruits and mango pickles of Kollapur are in great demand not only in Mahabubnagar but also in Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Speaking to the media here on Saturday, some of the farmers said they were able to make a profit of Rs 15,000 on each hectare, but this year they incurred heavy losses.

The owners of the gardens and orchards lamented that they were unable to get the money invested in growing mangoes due to rain fury. Farmers in Mahabubnagar district are facing hardships as they are not getting support price even for maize and groundnut crops. The unseasonal rains have left them distraught and they are urging the government to come to their rescue in their hour of crisis.