Dapoli, Maharashtra – On April 5th, Monks Bouffe visited a mango orchard in the Konkan region of Maharashtra. It's a land in transition, still bearing the invisible scars of cyclone Nisarg, which passed through the region in June, 2020 (about 4 years ago). The natural mango & cashew farmer, Piyush revealed the cyclone's ongoing impact on the delicate alphonso mango ecosystem.Â
Reduced Yields
Alphonso mango yields at this naturally managed farm have dropped to a mere 30-35% of pre-cyclone levels. The flowering this year indicated a bumper crop, as it was even more than earlier he says, but most of them wither and drop, resulting in only a fraction of the typical harvest.Â
Commercial Alphonso Mango Farmers Adapt…With Excess Chemicals
Commercial Alphonso mango farms in the region, typically reliant on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, have also seen yields decrease by a staggering 50%. To compensate, farmers are resorting to even heavier spraying regimens (at least 6 to 7 rounds), which include a potentially harmful chemicals used on "cultivars."
Road Development Compounds the Problem
The Mumbai Goa Highway project, along with local road widening, has led to widespread deforestation, disrupting the delicate forest ecosystem around the mango orchards. The loss of habitat has driven monkeys towards the orchards, further depleting the already diminished yield. This specific farmer Piyush who we visited practices a philosophy of ahimsa (non-violence) and therefore does not harm the monkeys. He says, we are encroaching their territory and if they have a few mangoes, we ideally should not be stopping them. But most farmers around, resort to shooting the monkeys.
Delayed Season, Depressed Prices
Perhaps the most significant change for alphonso mango farmers is a drastic shift in the fruiting season. "We used to see at least 15-20 dozen mangoes ready for local consumption by March, maybe early April," Piyush mentions. "These years post cyclone Nisarg, there isn’t a single ripe mango on the trees before 15th April."
This delay of over a month has serious repercussions. Early-season mangoes command the highest prices. As the market floods in mid-April and May, those prices drop considerably, preventing the natural mango growers from getting fair prices. This also leads to the farmers growing mangoes chemically to start spraying excess chemicals like the cultivar to offset this issue of late fruiting & make the most of the high prices in February & March.
A Call for Awareness
The mango crisis in the Konkan is a complex story of environmental change, economic pressure, and competing philosophies. For consumers, it's a stark reminder that the mangoes in the market are the product of a system under stress. Support for farmers and understanding of what challenges they are going through to remain steadfast even in difficult times, is more important than ever