Poor weather conditions hit UP mango production

In what may leave a sour taste for mango lovers, Uttar Pradesh — known for producing Dussehri, Langda and Chausa varieties of the saccharine fruit — may witness up to 73 per cent decline in production due to adverse weather conditions.

“There was bumper production of about 30 lakh tonnes mangoes last year. But this year production is likely to go down by one-third. We are expecting about eight to 10 lakh tonnes of mango production this year,” the President of the All-India Mango Growers Association, Mr Insram Ali, told PTI.

The mango belts in Uttar Pradesh, which include Lucknow (Lucknow, Malihabad, Bakshi-ka-Talaab), Saharanpur and Sambhal-Amroha-Muzaffarnagar districts have registered poor flowering this season due to which mango lovers will have to be disappointed, Mr Ali said.

They were trying to save the fruit on the trees but it was sure that the situation was unlikely to improve much and production would certainly come down.

Renowned mango grower Haji Kalimullaha Khan, a Padamshri awardee and known for developing a rare technique for growing more than 300 varieties of mangoes of different shapes, sizes and hues on one tree, when asked said he was deeply worried at the scenario of decline in mango production scenario.

The Lucknow belt, which produces world famous Dussehri mangoes besides Langda and Chausa, alone comprises 30-40 per cent of the State’s annual mango production.

During 2010, the total arrival of mango in the market from Lucknow region was roughly 87,000 tonnes. The corresponding figures for 2008 and 2009 stood at 52,000 tonnes and 34,000 tonnes, respectively, official sources said.

Delhi is the biggest market for Uttar Pradesh mangoes, followed by Punjab, they said.

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