Spells of hailstorm and thunder shower while brought down temperature in different parts of Koraput district in the last four days, the mango growers are, however, spending sleepless nights. For, hundreds of quintals of mangoes have been damaged due to the nature’s fury.
According to sources, mango crop has been grown on about 3,000 acres of land in Jeypore, Kundra, Kotpad, Boriguma, Dasmantpur, lamtaput, and lakhmipur pockets which taken three months’ of toil of the farmers. But the crop has been damaged extensively in the rain.
The farmers said export quality mango varieties like Alphanso, Amrapali, Dasheri, lengada, Bombay queen and Neelam were cultivated at an expenditure of over Rs 30,000 per acre. At a time when the fruits are in the reaping stage, the rains and storm played the spoilsports. “About 50 per cent of my farming has been lost due to heavy storm and rain,” lamented Madhab Panda, a farmer of Kundra block.
Sources said a farmer earns up to Rs 1 lakh from mango farming in a season but is hardly compensated by any agencies in case of damage to the crop. There is no food processing unit in the district to process the
damaged fruit and make up for the losses of the growers. As a result, the farmers are forced to sell the fruit in the local markets at throwaway prices. There is insurance cover for mango crop in neighbouring States but there is yet to be one for the Odisha farmers.
Meanwhile, the farmers have demanded an assessment of the damage due to the natural calamity and demanded financial relief through the Revenue department.