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The rising temperature levels across Maharashtra is seen affecting horticulture crops such as tomatoes and citrus fruits among others. While the day temperatures are as high as 40 degrees, nights are cooler by 15-20 degrees.
Farmers are reporting drying of stems, leaves and premature fruit dropping due to excess heat conditions.
Tomatoes lose the juice
Farmer Ashok Shendge from the northern Nashik district said that tomatoes on his one-acre farm have started wilting due to the excess heat. The leaves have dried, stunting the growth of the plants. Such heat will lead to a definite drop in the yield and impact the market prices.
“The tomato crop will be ready for harvest by end of May or early June. Today, good quality tomatoes are fetching a mere ₹400/quintal,” Shendge said. At the Nashik APMC market, the wholesale prices of tomatoes hover between ₹200 and ₹475 a quintal.
DY Holkar, Secretary of Lasalgaon APMC market, said that vegetable crops such as tomato and cabbage have been affected due to excess heat and pest attacks but the impact is not yet felt in the market. As on date, there is enough vegetable supply in the market, he said.
Sour time for oranges
Orange farmer Rishikesh Sontakke from Amravati district said that until recently the orchards were facing hailstorm and now they are in the grip of an intense heatwave.
The present crop would be harvested in September and the oranges have grown to the size of jujubes but the temperature difference has again triggered fruit dropping, he said.
Underscoring that the farmers cannot fight with nature, Sontakke, who has a 15-acre orchard, said they are waiting for the weather to change.
But some educated farmers have gone ahead with spraying the trees with potassium nitrate and some hormones, which helps prevent fruit dropping.
Amol Totey, Executive President of Orange Growers Association of India, said that the farmers who have managed to spray chemicals as soon as the heat stress started to build up have managed to salvage the crop, while others are suffering losses due to fruit drop.
Ambadas Huchche, Principal Horticulture Scientist at the Central Citrus Research Institute, Nagpur, said that orchards with lesser water supply are prone to fruit dropping.
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