A dry harvest: Chittoor’s mango farmers struggle with reduced yield

In Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, unseasonal rainfall from November 2021 to May 2022 resulted in a significant drop in mango yield. “I’ve never had such a poor yield,” said N Suguna, a farmer from Kothur village who spent INR 1 lakh on her four-acre mango orchard last year. “At least 350 kilos of raw mangoes fell [too early] on our farm. We had to sell them for INR 4 a kilo. It didn’t even cover the labour costs,” she added. “I let about 100 kilos rot in the ground itself.”

A 2015 state revenue department order states that mango farmers are eligible for a compensation of INR 20,000 per hectare, provided they lose at least 33 percent of their crop. However, the district horticulture officer of the region stated, “As per the order, the trees should be completely uprooted, with the trunks broken.” Going by this definition, only 50 mango farmers in the district would be eligible for compensation. Therefore, the farmers are asking for a change in the present policy.

“Not a lot of mango trees were uprooted. But small farmers still lost everything to the rains. Shouldn’t they be compensated for the losses?” asked Nageswara Raju, a farmer activist. Additionally, the officials of the revenue department survey the villages only if the mandal headquarters record high winds and extreme rainfall. Velkur, a village in eastern Chittoor, received excess rainfall this year; however, the mandal headquarters, which lie 3 km away from Velkur, did not. As a result, Velkur’s farmers did not receive any compensation. Given that one mandal has around 15 revenue villages, Nageswara Raju believes that it is critical for the local government to consider the extreme weather events in each revenue village, and not just the mandal as a whole.

Although the profits they make during the season is what typically sustains mango farmers through the year, their situation grows more untenable over time. “Our debts will pile up if we rely only on growing mangoes. I’m rearing cows to pay for the losses from the mango farm,” said Suguna.

Jithendra Prasad is a software engineer and freelance writer.

This is an edited excerpt from an article that was originally published on Village Square.

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