In Kasal, a small village in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district, the land lies parched. Like the rest of the Konkan, Kasal has seen recurring heat waves since February this year, with temperatures nearing 40 degrees celsius, markedly above normal.
In Abrav Fernandes’s backyard, tiny, immature mango fruits, almost resembling unborn human fetuses, lie fallen on the ground. Charred flowers adorn the trees. While he is not a registered farmer, he once sold mangoes locally.
“Mangoes grew in abundance then. We had plenty for neighbours, relatives, ourselves, and still enough for selling locally,” he recalls a time over a decade ago. “At that time, we only heard about the term ‘global warming’, but now we’re witnessing it first-hand. Temperatures here were never so high,” he tells Mongabay India.
Mangoes require specific climatic conditions for flowering, fruit setting and maturation into healthy fruits. Ideally, they thrive in subtropical or tropical climates, with optimal temperatures between 24-30 degrees celsius.
Climate disruptions affect both the yield and the quality of mangoes. This manifests in the form of transformation of reproductive buds into vegetative buds, early or delayed flowering, abnormal fruit set, fruit damage and development of spongy tissues.
With 182,000 hectares under mango cultivation, the Konkan accounts for 7.28% of India’s mango production area, with a productivity of 2,200 kg per hectare. It is particularly famous for the Alphonso mango, which is known as the king of mangoes.
Nationally, about 2.5 million hectares of land is under mango cultivation with an average productivity of 7,200 kg per hectare. About a fourth of the country’s mango production takes place in Uttar Pradesh.
Lower harvests, poor fruit
About five kilometres from Fernandes’s home, Mohan Shantaram Gad sits on a bed of hay sorting freshly plucked Alphonso mangoes and packing them into boxes neatly labelled “Devgad Alphonso Mangoes”. Gad has cultivated mangoes for over 40 years and owns more than 300 trees, primarily Alphonso mangoes, along with kesar, ratna and sindhu varieties. He is a registered farmer. This year, his yield has dropped by nearly 50%, he says.
“Earlier, a single tree produced approximately 15-16 crates of mangoes. This year, the average is six to seven crates per tree,” explains Gad. Each crate can hold five to six dozen mangoes.
He spent approximately Rs 50,000 on fertilisers, in addition to labour costs. He applied for a grant at the Common Service Centre to prune the branches of his trees. He was promised a sum of Rs 1,000 per tree. Two months later, he is still awaiting the amount. Meanwhile, he spent Rs 8,500 on trimming a few trees.
The ideal mango tree height should be around 25 feet, suggests Mahesh Manohar Kulkarni, a horticulturist and assistant professor at the College of Agriculture, Dapoli.
Gad is afraid that along with the drop in yield, his revenues will also drop significantly from the previous year. “Besides reducing the yield, high temperatures shrink the size of the mangoes and reduce their quality. It affects their colour, texture and skin,” he adds. “This year, the quantity of bad fruit exceeded good fruit.”
He further says, “Customers refuse to pay the same price for smaller, defective fruits, which then sell at Rs 100-200 less per dozen at least.”
Another farmer in Kasal, Dilip Waman Chindarkar, faces a similar problem. He is a small-scale farmer with about 50 trees and sold roughly 60-70 crates last year. This year, his crop shows a high incidence of spongy tissue. While his trees flowered well, the fruit setting suffered due to continuous heat waves.
He cultivates only Alphonso mangoes, along with a few cashew trees, which have also been affected by the heat.
“The mangoes this year are inferior due to their small size, spots on the skin and the occurrence of spongy tissues. They are not fit for sale,” he tells Mongabay India. The few mangoes he produced show signs of heat stress.
“A major impact of heat and climate change on mangoes is the development of spongy tissue,” explains Yashwantrao Raghunath Govekar, PhD, head of the pathology department at the Regional Fruit Research Centre, Vengurla, and assistant professor at the College of Agriculture, Dapoli. “Alphonso mangoes are more vulnerable to this disorder than other varieties.”
Horticulturist Miguel Braganza from Goa elaborates on the issue. “Heat denatures the enzyme responsible for converting the unripe white mango flesh into ripe yellow flesh. As a result, some portions remain white and form spongy tissue,” he explains. “High temperatures and hot winds also trigger increased production of abscisic acid in the tree, which causes premature fruit drop.”
High temperature
Besides mangoes, extreme temperatures have also impacted other regional fruits such as kokum, jamun, karwanda and cashew.
“Across the Konkan region, we observed a pattern where flowering was good, but fruit setting was poor,” says MP Sanas, horticulturist at the Regional Fruit Research Centre and assistant professor at the College of Agriculture, Dapoli. “Based on primary observations, we believe that high temperatures may have affected pollinators like flies and bees, which are essential for pollination. This disruption likely led to reduced fruit setting. We need further studies to confirm this link.”
In Sindhudurg, most cultivators grow only a single variety, creating monocultures.
“Mangoes perform better with cross-pollination,” Sanas adds. “Planting a mix of crops, including flowering plants, improves yields.” Several studies establish this connection.
A joint study by the College of Agriculture, Dapoli and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Ella, Goa, identified climate-resilient varieties such as kesar and alphonso hybrids- samrat and ratna. However, farmers rarely grow these varieties. Market preferences continue to shape the widespread cultivation of Alphonso mangoes.
According to experts, high temperatures and hot winds trigger increased production of abscisic acid in the tree, which causes fruits to drop prematurely. Image by Lisann Dias.
“A dozen Alphonso mangoes sells for Rs 400-Rs 450, while other varieties sell for Rs 200-Rs 250 per dozen, almost 50% less,” explains Gad, the farmer from Kasal.
“Alphonso mangoes offer a perfect balance of sweet and sour, which appeals to a wide range of consumers, making them highly popular,” explains Govekar of Vengurla’s Regional Fruit Research Centre. “Other varieties, like Mankhurad and Kesar, have a much higher sugar content.”
Interventions and innovations
“Yields are already lower this year. If temperatures continue to rise, Alphonso mangoes may not survive,” cautions Braganza.
Krushi Sevaks, appointed at the village or taluka level, offer precautionary advice to farmers.
“They produce weekly advisories on expected temperature and humidity levels, along with recommended protective measures. Farmers receive these advisories through WhatsApp groups,” says Sanas. “For example, during the flowering stage before fruit setting, if moisture levels are low and temperatures rise, increased irrigation is advised. After fruit setting, a temperature rise may lead to premature fruit drop. In such cases, irrigation should again be increased.”
Another intervention is to harvest mangoes as soon as they mature, before ripening, and storing them in a cool chamber. “This reduces the internal temperature before allowing them to ripen naturally. However, such facilities are currently available only in Devgad and Kudal,” adds Braganza.
However, he warns, “Farmers will have to look for alternatives if temperatures keep rising. If more than 50% of the fruit develops spongy tissue, they won’t be able to sell it.”
He adds, “Another approach is to identify hybrids that are resistant to heat-related issues such as spongy tissue, while retaining the qualities of the Alphonso mango. Ratna is one such variety, a hybrid of the Alphonso and the Neelam mango from southern India. It is resistant to the spongy tissue.”
“We also need to explore hybridisation between the Alphonso and North Indian mango varieties that can withstand temperatures above 40 degrees celsisu,” Braganza continues. “Erratic weather conditions are going to become the norm. We must develop varieties that are tolerant and resistant to such extremes, using whatever scientific techniques available, be it genetic engineering or conventional breeding.”
Meanwhile, the farmers in Kasal know they can’t fight the rising heat due to climate change. Gad runs a shop selling Konkan produce, which sustains him and his family. Chindarkar is supported by his son, who is a doctor.
When asked about his future in mango farming, he responds in Malvani, “Kite karpavk zata? Sogle nash zatele (What can we do? Everything will be destroyed),” referring to a bleak future for the king of fruits.
This article was first published on Mongabay.
