Price crash and fungal infection force Kolar farmers to dump quintals of mangoes on highway

Mango growers of the district have dumped many quintals of mangoes following the Anthracnose fungal infection and crash in mango prices, a farmer leader said.

"Mango growers are in distress in the district due to terrible losses. With no aid coming from the government, farmers have dumped loads of mangoes by the roadside in some parts of Srinivasapura in the district," Kolar District Mango Growers and Marketing Association president Neelaturu Chinnappa Reddy told PTI.

According to him, it was a triple whammy for the mango growers this year.

There was unexpected rain and hailstorm in the district causing severe damage to the crops.

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Further, there was Anthracnose fungal attack on the mangoes and third was the crash in mango prices, Reddy said.

"This year farmers took only 30 per cent of the crop, of which half of the crops were destroyed due to fungal attack. Further the crash in mango prices caused immense loss to the growers," the farmer lamented.

He complained that the government focused entirely on Covid and its relief work but did not look at the mango growers who suffered severe losses.

Karnataka State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation Limited chairman K V Nagaraju said most of the crop destroyed this time is Totapuri variety though other crops suffered minimum losses.

"I visited the spot with the state Horticulture Minister R Shankar. Only Totapuri variety of mango got fungal infections. There was very less damage to Benisha (Banaganapalli), Neelam and Mallika mangoes," Nagaraju told PTI.

He also said that he has written to the government to give a compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare to the Totapuri growers of Kolar who incurred losses.