Sources in the agriculture ministry have tentatively put the total mango output in the current season at about six million tonnes on the basis of reports received from major mango growing states. They anticipate a significant fall in exports this year. The total mango production in the country last year was about 11 million tonne. According to recent estimates, in UP, the fall in mango output is likely to be around 40 per cent, while in Gujarat and Bihar the crop may go down by around 30 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. However, in the major mango producing states of AP and Karnataka, the decline is expected to be just around 15 per cent.

There is usually a decline in production every alternate year, especially after peak production in the previous year. Though a partial decline in production was expected this year, the extent of large-scale damage has turnedout to be matter of grave concern. Other factors, incidentally, have also aggravated the extent of damage. The unseasonable rains in January and February which led to an extended winter and the prevailing low temperatures did not allow adequate and timely flowering. Consequently this resulted in the decline in production of mangoes.

Thereafter the rise in temperature and consequent rains have caused humidity levels to rise in the atmosphere leading to breeding of insects and pests harmful to mango crop. The alarming decline in the output of this valuable cash crop has left the agriculture ministry in a quandary and the horticulture commissioner has written to the concerned states to initiate proper measures to curb the menace of insects and pests so that at least the remaining crop could be saved. According to reports, measures have already been initiated in western UP to control the predominance of gallminch insect.

Sources in the ministry stated that one of the major reasons for the decline inproduction was the lack of proper planning necessary for the production of any horticulture crop in the country. The government has also not taken any initiative in this direction. There was no minimum support price to encourage growers. The market intervention scheme was only limited to certain horticulture products in cases of averting any possible distress sale by farmers. Besides, in most states, the directorates of horticulture have been carved out of existing departments of agriculture and are, therefore, highly understaffed in terms of trained manpower needed for promotion of horticulture. Most of the directorates lack logistic support for identifying thrust areas for programme implementation. It is for these reasons, the state directorates were unable to utilise 100 per cent allocation under the Eighth Plan.