Buyers of mango crop suffered most as they had to pay the garden owners 50 per cent of the agreed amounts. In fact, many buyers are in a dilemma if they should go ahead with harvesting the infected mango fruit or just leave the gardens without paying further instalments to farmers.
Frustrated buyers and farmers threw out tonnes of mangoes at the Asia's biggest mango market at Nunna, near here. The yield was estimated to be at the normal-level of 8 tonne per hectare over the 62,270 hectares in the district.
But mangoes were affected with 'mangu' disease due to which 50-60 per cent of the fruit turned black. Traders and exporters are rejecting the crop or paying paltry rates.
K Radhakrishna, a farmer and exporter, said this year there was unprecedented flowering and all were hoping for a good crop. However, after six days of heavy rains, fungus spread rampantly and it all turned sour.
Banginapalli, the king of mangoes, crashed from Rs 10,000-12,000 a tonne to Rs 4,000-5,000. Thotapuri fetched Rs 2,000-4,000 and Rasalu Rs 2,000-3,000. Banginapalli and Thotapuri account for 40 per cent each (1 million tonne) of the total mango production in the district while other varieties, including Rasalu, account for 20 per cent (100,000 tonne).
P Madhusudan, additional director, Horticulture, however, blamed the farmers for the situation. Absentee landlordism is a big problem in mango cultivation, he said, adding garden owners sell away the crop to buyers and exporters and would not visit the garden even once.
Around 40 per cent of the orchards are very old, a score of them over 50 years. Experts have advised farmers to go for high-density plantation (50 plants per acre) but farmers grow only 15 trees per acre.
