The mango farmers and traders of Muthalamada in the district are pinning their hopes on the monsoon for a brave recovery from the crop disasters they suffered in the last couple of years.
Delayed and untimely rain and an unprecedentedly massive attack by thrips had nearly decimated the crops in the State’s ‘mango city’ in the last two years.
But, in an exceptional display of confidence, dozens of farmers have begun their work in earnest preparing for the next season. With an eye on beating the climate as well as the thrips, the farmers started pruning and fertilising the trees a month in advance.
“Usually preparations like pruning and fertilising will begin in July. This time, we have begun in June anticipating a better yield,” said Hafees J.M., a leading mango farmer and exporter at Muthalamada.
Muthalamada farmers have started preparing for the next season even when the mangoes of the current season from Tamil Nadu continued to reach Kerala market. The farmers are hoping for a better yield by January-February next year.
It is the early cropping that makes Muthalamada mangoes unique in the country. “We are the first ones to hit the national mango market. Muthalamada mangoes reach Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad markets weeks before mangoes arrive from other parts of the country. That’s why we enjoy a special place in the national mango market,” said Mr. Hafees.
Many farmers are busy breaking up and recharging the soil by using rotavators. But unlike the previous years, farmers are found to be avoiding cluster farming and preferring young trees to old and robust trees.
“The reason is obvious. Young trees are found to be giving better yield than old trees. They are less susceptible to thrips attack also,” said Mr. Hafees. M. Sachindran, another farmer, buttressed Mr. Hafees by saying that the thrips had attacked the flowers of old trees as though in vengeance.
The concern about the thrips is still there among the farmers. “Thrips or no thrips, we have to survive. We should look for means to circumvent this threat,” said Mr. Sachindran.
Entomologists from Kerala Agricultural University are working on bio-pesticide alternatives to counter the thrips menace. Some of the experiments conducted in the mango orchards of Muthalamada have been successful.
The mango orchards of Muthalamada spread in 4,500-odd hectares are the pride of Kerala. Popular mango varieties such as Alphonso, Banganapalli, Sindhooram, Mallika, Kalapadi, Malgoa, Natsela, Kilichundan and Neelam are produced in Muthalamada.
Although the government had announced the setting up of a mango processing centre at Muthalamada, and thus converting the State’s ‘mango city’ into a mango park of South India, nothing has happened. The mango park, according to the government, would have facilities for processing, packaging and exporting of mangoes.
Two years ago, the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) had agreed to fund a common facilitation centre for packing of juice and mango processing.
The quality of Muthalamada soil apart, the weather in the region has been conducive for mango farming. Although the government had proposed to bring mango farming under organic cultivation in a phased manner by introducing clusters, the farmers are now found to be drifting away from cluster farming.
