Andhra Pradesh: Mango farmers battle erratic weather, crop pests

Scroll.in

18 hours ago

An earlier onset of the summer, erratic rainfall, and pests that thrive due to the changing climate are impacting mango farmers' yields in Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh, farmers say and data show.
First, the February heat resulted in flowers falling off early in B Vasudeva Reddy's mango farm in Abbireddivuru village in Chittoor district. Then, in April, black thrips attacked his crop, and he sprayed pesticides and other 'medicines' indiscriminately, on the advice of shop owners, in an attempt to control the pests and help flowering. He invested Rs 4 lakh in his mango crop this season, but is expecting just 20% of the crop, he told us in April.
D Madhusudan Reddy, deputy director of horticulture for Chittoor district, said that the mango yield in Chittoor varies a lot year to year. For instance, the totapuri variety, that grows over 100,000 acres in Chittoor has had yields ranging from 2.4 to 6 tonnes per acre over five years.
'The average yield in the district is four tonnes per acre; this year it is five tonnes so we can say it is above average,' said Reddy, adding that rains which occurred in May led to an increase in the size of the fruit in the district, thus covering up for some of the loss of flowering.
This is an estimate of the horticultural department, based on random crop-cutting experiments in the field. Farmers have complained of lower-than-usual yields, but the actual figures will only be known at the end of the season.
Climate change in Chittoor
Instead of the usual March temperatures of 35-36 degrees celsius, temperatures were 37-38 degrees celsius, touching 40 degrees celsius on two days, said Prathima Thottambeti, the Principal Scientist at Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University. Warmer temperatures mean flowers fall off earlier than they should from the mango trees.
Farmer G Chinna Reddappa, 60, is worried as his six-acre mango garden is expected to yield only 25% of the normal 20-25 tonnes of fruit this year. 'I may have to borrow another Rs 1 lakh to keep my son doing Pharma D [a doctoral programme] in college,' said the farmer from Puttavaripalli village.
Reddappa shifted to mango cultivation as part of a special drive by the administration to give impetus to horticulture in Rayalaseema, a perennially drought-prone rain shadow region.
'The Scheduled Caste corporation [which is aiding him] gave us the table variety fruit benisha [kind of mango] plants for free. This variety of trees which could have fetched me Rs 30,000 per tonne normally is not going to give good yield as its flowering has dropped off more compared to say, totapuri.'
Reddappa is not alone. His fellow villager Bandi Chandra has a one-acre mango garden, but wants to give his farm up for two years, on a lease for Rs 1 lakh, to fund his daughter's college education, but he has no takers.
Farmers say that though totapuri has survived the vagaries of climate better than benisha, its selling price is often lower than benisha, and its rate depends on the whims and fancies of the pulp factory owners' association, the main consumer of totapuri.
Some farmers are grafting table varieties with totapuri, and this has survived the heat better. Others have replaced mango with other crops.
M Janardhan Reddy, a farmer with a 10-acre garden in Madithativaripalle village, has cut benisha over an area of three acres and replaced it with coconut. 'I have not been able to earn even the pesticide cost on these trees for three years now. My income has been just Rs 2.5 lakh for the past three years now compared to a normal of Rs 7 lakh over the years.'
Other farmers say they are thinking of moving to groundnut, paddy or sugarcane, which were widely cultivated earlier in the district, says P Haemadri Reddy, a farmer from Puttavaripalli village. His wife says the perpetual low income that farmers make have dissuaded younger generations from farming. 'No wonder there is no farmer who is less than 50 years old in the village,' she said.
In some ways, Chittoor is better off than other districts, when it comes to rising temperatures.
'While climate change is showing impact on global environment, the conversion of paddy and groundnut fields into mango gardens have reduced the intensity of heat impact in the Chittoor region,' said a senior scientist from the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory at Gadanki, (NARL) who did not wish to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media. According to him, the average change in temperature over the Chittoor region since 1940 is 0.4 degrees celsius, lower than other areas in the state.
'However,' he added, 'recent increase in maximum temperatures and reduction in range of diurnal variation of temperatures [the difference between the maximum and minimum temperature] and increase in frequency of heat waves is a concern for the mango crop. There is an urgent need for action to mitigate these changes.'
D Srinivasa Reddy, a senior scientist at the Citrus Research Station at Dr YSR Horticulture University in Tirupati, says that for flowering to happen in December, the difference in day and night temperatures should be 15 to 18 degrees. The higher the difference, the better the chances of flowering.
But, he said 'such conditions did not prevail until late January and February'. This resulted in heavy flowering, but the early heat in February and March also led to early loss of flowers, he said.
G Obuleshwar Reddy (44), a farmer from Puttavaripalli, said he had expected a bumper crop with the abundant flowering. Now, 'we have just 25% of the crop compared to last year. In the previous year by now fruit had ripened. The entire crop cycle has been delayed by a month.' He grows varieties including benisha, imampasand, pullura and kadhar (alphonso).
Apart from heat, an erratic north east monsoon is affecting the crop. For the mango crop, ideal rainfall is about 2.5 mm per rainy day, which should be spread over the monsoon season.
But 'rainfall is not uniform anymore and the region is getting even 10 mm rain on a single day leading to wetness in the soil for a longer period. Being a climate-sensitive crop this affects flowering in mango,' the scientist Reddy said.
'For flowering to be initiated, it should not rain between October 15 and December 1. But as the weather was cloudy in November and December, day temperatures fell leading to delay in flowering,' said Madhusudan Reddy, deputy director of horticulture for Chittoor district.
There were rains that followed in December, twice in January and then no rain in March and April, followed by 20 mm rain in May, said T Prathima on the erratic nature of rainfall.
More pests
Scientists say that with the change in weather patterns, new pests are affecting crops. 'Earlier we used to have only two pests – hopper and fruit fly – affecting the mango crop, along with fungus like powdery mildew and anthracnose. But now Litchi Looper, Brazilian Shoot Caterpillar and fruit borer have hit the crop,' said Reddy, the scientist.
Varieties like benisha are usually more at danger from pests, but late flowering of the totapuri made it more susceptible to pests this year. Usually black thrips attack chilli, and as the cost for chilli is low this year, farmers did not take much effort to contain the pest, worsening its impact in the mango flowering season.
Spraying of chemicals to stave off these pests adds to pesticide residue in the mango pulp, increasing the chances of the produce being rejected by overseas buyers, said Reddy, the scientist. Pesticides should particularly not be used over flowers, he said.
Scientists say pesticides like Imidacloprid, Thiamethoxam have been used for the past 25 years and insects have developed resistance to them. Farmers in Andhra Pradesh have also used a combination – chlorpyrifos (an organophosphate) plus cypermethrin (a synthetic pyrethroid) – the use of which is restricted in many countries, because it is harmful for the environment as well as to humans.
Dasaradha Rami Reddy, deputy director of horticulture of Tirupati district, said that farmers were spraying synthetic pyrethroids, which impact nervous system functioning, despite the department advising against these. 'A policy decision on their usage by the state government is needed as pesticide usage is a state subject,' Rami Reddy added.
Government support
To protect farmers from the vagaries of the weather, the Union government launched a crop insurance scheme in 2016 the compensation for which will be paid if the wind velocity, temperature, relative humidity and rainfall as recorded at the weather stations are beyond prescribed norms. It also covers damage by pests and diseases.
In Andhra Pradesh, the scheme for mangoes was rolled out in 2024, with a premium of Rs 1,700 per acre and the maximum sum assured of Rs 35,000 per acre.
For mango farmers, the scheme will be in force between December and May, Reddy of the horticulture department said. We have written to the higher authorities recommending payment of compensation, Reddy said.
In addition, he said, 'we are seeking extension of the period of the scheme until the end of July to cover for the change in crop cycle as we get rains in June and July that could cause damage to the crop. Plucking of the fruit happens here until the end of July'. This change could be accepted for the next crop year, he said.
Farmers like B Vasudeva Reddy say the officials should hold local meetings to raise awareness on insurance for farmers, as well as on the dangers of pesticides, as many farmers do not know about these.
Horticulture department officials say that they have fixed Rs 12 per kg as the price for the totapuri mangoes, for pulp units, the major buyers of mangoes in Chittoor. But mango, as per the government, does not have a mandatory Minimum Support Price, such as paddy, or even a Fair and Remunerative Price, such as sugarcane, so companies are not obligated to buy at a certain rate.
Meanwhile, the district horticulture officials say that of the Rs 12 prescribed, while the companies pay Rs 8, the state government will reimburse the remaining Rs 4 to the farmers.
'To stop the pulp companies from purchasing mangoes from outside the district, officials inform that restrictions will be placed on bringing the fruit from outside the state. The stock has to be procured from only the erstwhile Chittoor district and produce from even from other coastal districts will not be allowed,' said Reddy of the Chittoor horticulture department.
About 90% of totapuri fruit in the district is consumed by the pulp industry and on average 65%-75% of the total pulp is exported, Reddy of the horticulture department said, adding that processing units purchase nearly 550,000-650,000 metric tonnes of fruit every year.
Thus, the sustenance of the mango crop depends on the viability of the Rs 1,500-crore pulp industry, especially for the totapuri variety, said K. Govardhan Bobby, secretary of the Chittoor District Fruit Processors Federation.
But the industry is not doing very well, with nearly 150,000 tonnes of pulp remaining in godowns of which some is from the 2023 season, and will expire by June and July 2025, Bobby said. He added that district officials had called them for a meeting and asked that they pay a good price for mangoes. 'We told them we will try to give a better price. The fruit is still maturing. While table varieties yield has reduced, the totapuri fruit is good.'
Traders also say they don't know the quantity they will buy this year, as there is uncertainty in the industry. 'Only 40% of the crop is there. We will earn a few bucks only if the rates are good. This year traders are risk averse and are not ready to invest,' said Abdul Munaf, 68.
NR Ehsanulla, president of Damalacheruvu Mango Mandi Traders association (one of the biggest market yards) in Tirupati district, said, 'Market is down and factories have not opened yet…It's been a month since the market opened but only a few varieties are arriving.'
Mangati Gopal Reddy from the Federation of Farmers Associations says the industry is exaggerating claims of leftover pulp to be able to negotiate lower prices for this year's mango crop.
Bobby said that exports of the fruit were disturbed due to the Russia-Ukraine war which created problems along the Red Sea route, and alternative routes doubled the cost. 'Add to this the juice industry which has reduced the usage of pulp from 18% to 9%. The demand thus fell by half by just this measure.'
The National Dairy Development Board which exports pulp cancelled the contract with us and struck a deal with our counterparts in Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu, Bobby said. He said they have requested for a National Board for Mango, such as one for rubber and turmeric, to take care of the problems of the industry, but no such board has been formed.