The mango growers of Rayalaseema region observe that though their dream of a Mango Board, on the lines of the one for tobacco, coconut, and rubber, has eluded them for several decades, there is no question of abandoning it at any cost.
A delegation of mango growers from Chittoor met Vice-President M. Venkakaiah Naidu in New Delhi on May 4, seeking his intervention to support their demand. The farmers also have plans to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Traditional families involved in mango cultivations for generations in Rayalaseema and coastal areas observe that they remained exposed to exploitation owing to the absence of any scientific marketing modules. Though India happens to be the apex producer of mangoes, with a global share of 55%, there is no Central board for it, leaving the growers high and dry, year after year, thrown to the vagaries of nature and exploitation due to a deeply entrenched middleman system.
Mango growers of Andhra Pradesh are at the forefront responding to the clarion call for a united fight to achieve their demand for a Mango Board.
A.P. leader
Andhra Pradesh is considered the leader in mango production, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, and the southern States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Kerala. The mango growers cite the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) to contend that Andhra Pradesh produces 24.45 lakh metric tonnes of mangoes annually, of the national output of 11 million tonnes. Of the 10.23 lakh hectares of mango plantations, the share of Andhra Pradesh stands at 3.50 lakh hectares. Of this, Chittoor district accounts for 1.50 lakh hectares.
Former Chittoor MLA, N.P. Venkateswara Chowdary, who led the delegation, happens to be a mango grower, carrying the legacy of his forefathers.
After conducting an extensive research on the crop patterns, travails of mango growers, natural calamities, and marketing trends in India, Mr. Chowdary has taken it as his life ambition to realise the mango board, in the absence of which the “worst affected would be the growers of Andhra Pradesh.”
The former MLA says that Andhra Pradesh and a few patches in Telangana produce 80% of the “Thothapuri” variety of mangoes, meant for the food processing industries, while all other States limit their production to the “table varieties”.
The “table-variety” growing States mostly depend on exports to Europe, the U.S., West Asia, Australia, and South East Asia. “Apart from exports, the growers there can also benefit from the domestic market for the varieties, whereas the Andhra Pradesh would be at the receiving end, thanks to ‘pulp variety’,” Mr. Chowdary said.
Growers losing out
Confederation of Indian Farmers’ Associations (CIFA) secretary Kothur Babu, who is a strong votary to the demand for a Mango Board, contends that in the absence of the board, the growers would predominantly lose the opportunity to have the “support price” for their produce, unlike the tobacco, rubber, and coconut.
“During the COVID years, the Centre had provided us with the Kisan Rails to transport mangoes to New Delhi, but after the wagons arrived, the produce received negligible price. It threw the farmers into huge losses. If a Board is there, the support price could be prefixed, and even the farmers can avail themselves of subsidies on transporting of loads,” he said.
The votaries of the demand emphasise that apart from the “support price”, the Mango Board would enable the prime benefits of subsidies, loans, and marketing support to the growers.
Responding to the ambitious demand for a Mango Board, a senior Horticulture scientist with Dr. YSR Horticultural University said that creation of such a board would lead to a scientific pattern of mango cultivation, better management of fertilizers and pesticides considering the prospects of exports and a much-coordinated effort from the horticulture and agriculture officials at the State and the Central levels.
The surplus and scarcity factors could be profitably managed. Eventually, it would make a tremendous contribution to the national economy, he added.
