Devgad Mango Devastated This 2012 Season

It has been a very devastating time this season. In December 2011, we were looking forward to a decent crop this Alphonso Season 2012. Then all of sudden Cyclone Thane swept across Southern Indian. It was the strongest tropical cyclone of 2011. While everything was going fine till then, the after-effects of the cyclone took away the winter and cold weather. We were expecting winter to stay till mid-January and then start getting warm, which would have helped good production of the mango fruits. However, after the cyclone, it started to get warm immediately and remained warm till January end. This adversely affected the production of mangoes.

As fate may have it, it started getting cold in February and it stayed cold till the last week of March. This pushed the season further and the expectation was that Season 2012 will start by 7-10 April 2012 at least. As the cold stayed back for a longer time, it created a favorable atmosphere for the Thrips pest, which wreaked havoc on the trees. The new species of Thrips discovered last year made its appearance this year too and there is no pesticide available on it as yet.

Then adding insult to injury, a strong mini-storm swept across the Alphonso Mango producing belt in Devgad and Ratnagiri, April 2 and 3. It uprooted many mango trees and took down a huge amount of the standing mango crop. See the photo below. The storm also brought sandstorms and rains along with it, with created widespread devastation.

In totality, this has been a devastating season for the mango producing farmers in Devgad and the entire Konkan region. Whatever mangoes have been left on the trees will mature by April 20 and barely 30 days after that the Season 2012 of Devgad Alphonso Mango will end!