No fruit is so loved by all and so eagerly awaited in India as the mango, which, for a brief period each year, refreshes and sweetens the long summer days.
Mangoes are added to skewers, used to season dishes, and mashed with mint to make refreshing drinks. Connoisseurs hotly debate which of India’s dozen varieties — each with a different taste, color and texture — are best, and politely disagree on the correct way to eat the fruit: by cutting it into slices or sucking the juice straight from the top.
But this year the secular ritual is in jeopardy. With the scorching heat that hit northern India weeks before the normal season, mango plantations were devastated, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of small farmers who grow the fruit and the habit of the millions of people who consume it.
The heat wave is a clear example of the challenge India faces in ensuring its food security as the effects of climate change worsen, intensifying its struggle to increase agricultural productivity by international standards and feed a growing population of nearly 1,000,000. 4 billion.
The dangers of a warmer future are painfully visible on a small farm in Malihabad, a key mango-growing district in the north of the country, where Mohammed Aslam grows about 500 trees.
A few months ago, its mango trees were the picture of health, their dark green leaves gleaming above the well-watered soil and their branches with perfect clusters of white flowers. Then India experienced the hottest March in 122 years on record, with temperatures averaging 33 degrees and reaching 40 degrees. Mango blossoms wilted and died before bearing fruit.​
Virtually none of Aslan’s mango trees, spread across 1.6 hectares, produced fruit. In a normal year, they would have yielded more than 11 tons. “I’ve never seen this phenomenon before,” he said, looking back at his land in Uttar Pradesh state on a recent afternoon, bemoaning the thousands of dollars he would lose from the failed harvest.
Aslam is one of hundreds of farmers who helplessly watched the intense March heat continue into the hottest April in 50 years and then into May. Climate scientists, in a report released on Monday, said the chances of these heat waves in India had increased at least 30-fold since the 19th century.
The heat far exceeded the ideal temperature for mango fertilization, which is around 25 degrees, said Dheeraj Kumar Tiwari, a scientist at an agricultural university in Uttar Pradesh.
India is the world’s largest producer of mangoes, accounting for nearly 50% of the global crop. Much of it is consumed domestically, but the country exports tens of millions of dollars worth of mangoes every year to the United Arab Emirates, Great Britain, Germany and the United States. Over the last decade, it has also tried to penetrate the markets of other European Union countries.
In the past, export growth has been limited by the higher costs of Indian mangoes compared to countries such as Brazil, Peru, Israel and Pakistan. India has been striving to increase productivity, which would reduce costs.
Even before the extreme heat, Indian mango exports were severely hampered by supply chain disruptions from the pandemic, with overseas shipments shrinking by nearly 50% last year. India’s leading exporters organization was expecting a major turnaround this year as the Indian and US governments loosened trade rules.
Instead, severe weather hurt yields not just in the north of the country, but also in the south, which was hit by heavy and premature rains.
In Uttar Pradesh, the state with the highest production of mangoes in the north, an agricultural official estimated that production in the state would fall by about 20% this year. The Mango Growers Association said yields in the northern growing belt will be about 70% lower.
In the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, heavy rains delayed the flowering of mango trees by a month. When the fruits appeared, it was too hot and many fell from the branches prematurely.
B. Sreenivasulu, deputy director of the horticulture department of Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh, said that during the heavy rains that hit the region in November and December, when flowering occurs, farms were flooded and many riverside trees were uprooted. .
Mango cultivation in the district, the most productive in the state, was reduced by at least 30% this season. “This time, the effect of climate change was more visible than ever,” said Sreenivasulu.
The harshest conditions threaten populations that have grown mango trees for centuries. The Malihabad district of Uttar Pradesh is known for delicious varieties like Dasheri, which is named after a village in the region. The district is home to numerous families who have been cultivating the fruit for at least three generations. Most farmers in Malihabad own small farms and rely exclusively on mangoes for subsistence.
On a recent afternoon, against the backdrop of the serene beauty of orchards on either side of a quiet road in Malihabad, farmers gathered in a roadside tent expressed anxiety about the future. They discussed whether to diversify into other fruits and vegetables or sell their land.
Nadeem Ahmed, a third-generation mango producer, took a deep breath as he walked to his farm near the road. He pointed to the trees that would normally be laden with fruit at this time of year. “With a pain in my heart, I will have to start cutting these trees if this pattern continues,” he said. “A farmer’s soul shudders at the sight of these fruitless trees.”
Across the Ahmed site, Aslam said he was living in “acute strain” because of a mango crop that was only 5% of that of previous years. His 14-year-old son said he doesn’t want to continue in the family business when he becomes an adult.
“There won’t even be enough fruit for my children,” said Aslan, frowning in the hot afternoon sun. He noted that difficulties forced him to postpone his daughter’s wedding. “No sleeve, no life,” he added, lowering his voice at the end.
