22-06-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Mango crisis: Need robust post-harvest ecosystem in Karnataka
A sharp decline in market prices has pushed mango growers in the state into dire straits. The crisis worsens with every passing day as they are unable to recover even the input costs. While their patience is wearing thin, the state government is approaching the Centre for compensation. It is unclear how things will pan out in the coming days.
In Karnataka, mango is one of the major horticultural crops, cultivated on approximately 1.39 lakh hectares. Supply chain disruptions have impacted the livelihoods of lakhs of farmers across several districts. A combination of factors – heavy rains impacting fruit quality, pest infestations, increased input costs, insufficient processing units, and restrictions imposed by Andhra Pradesh on the movement of mangoes – seems to have contributed to the current crisis.
This is not the first time that mango growers have faced such a situation. In 2018, farmers in Kolar district – which grows around 10 lakh tonnes on 50,000 hectares – faced a similar plight. Unfortunately, that did not wake up the authorities to take long-term measures to develop enough processing units.
Farmers continue to depend on pulp industries in neighbouring states Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh's ban on entry of mangoes from other states hurt farmers in Kolar the most. Prices of Totapuri variety dropped from Rs 5,000 per tonne to around Rs 2,000 per tonne. In Kolar, Totapuri, a large green fruit used in the pulp industry, accounts for around 70 percent of the crop, while the remaining table varieties include Dasheri, Badami (also known as 'Alphonso of Karnataka'), Mallika, and Banganpalli.
Even Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who expressed concerns over the AP government's move, admitted that Karnataka farmers depend heavily on industries in the neighbouring state. 'This abrupt and unilateral move has caused considerable hardship to mango growers in Karnataka, particularly those in the border regions who cultivate Totapuri mangoes in substantial quantities. These farmers have long relied on the robust linkages with Chittoor-based processing and pulp extraction units for marketing their produce,' the CM stated in his letter to AP CM Chandrababu Naidu.
The government estimates that the disruption in the supply chain will directly impact the 'livelihoods of thousands of farmers' in the state. However, mango growers in Kolar put that number much higher at around 2 lakh in the district alone. Among others, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, and Bengaluru Rural are the major districts for mango cultivation.
