It is a busy month for organic farmer Arya Bhaskar. The 46-year-old is out in his 40-acre mango orchard, Kowmara Farms, at Andipatti near Palani, harvesting India’s favourite fruit. His staff of six assemble during the wee hours of the day to pluck large, semi-ripe yellow mangoes from each tree.
Arya has meticulously trained them in harvesting process, de-sapping, washing the mangoes in lukewarm water and finally sorting them. Once every two days, Arya transports the harvest to Coimbatore from where it is dispatched to Chennai via parcel service. It reaches local organic stores in the city and finally lands in the hands of eager mango-lovers, waiting to argue over who gets to eat the pulp around the seed.
For Arya and several other mango farmers this year, the season this year has been tumultuous. Rains accompanied by heavy winds during the flowering and budding seasons, reduced mango yields by 40 per cent across South India.
The unseasonal rains and unexpected climatic changes have caused quite a stir among farmers, especially small-scale ones. Arya says. “Our losses have not been that bad. We have salvaged almost 75 per cent of our yield. This is because ours is a large area, and our natural farming practices have helped,” he says, discussing his 13 year-old farm in the foothills of the Western Ghats.
However, Arya and several other organic farmers have been steely in the face of adversity. They seem to have an optimistic take away this summer — a longer mango season that lasts well into July.
Changing colours
The mango season usually begins around mid-April with the arrival of senthuram, mallika and alphonso, followed by banganapalli, imam pasand, kalapad, neelam, malgova and others, in May. This year, farmers say that the ripest versions of these fruits will hit markets only by the third week of May.
Each of the varieties have a distinctive taste and flavour. While imam pasand and malgova are buttery fruits high on sweetness, nadu cholai and senthuram are fibrous and known for their aroma and taste.
At their store in Adyar, Gopi Devarajan of Organic Farmers Market (OFM), Chennai, says that they have already stocked up on senthuram, alphonso, imam pasand, and Salem gundu. By the fourth week of May, there will be a huge influx of Banganapalli, the most popular variety in Tamil Nadu, he says. “It will be worth the wait,” says Gopi.
Gururaj Rao, co-founder of Deep Rooted, an agri-tech company with a network of 1000-plus farmers, provides urban consumers access to varieties like pedha rasalu, chinna rasalu, badami, raspuri and kalapad which are lesser known in Tamil Nadu.
It takes a precise understanding of the life cycle of the fruit to ensure that optimum sweetness is achieved. “Letting the fruit mature in the tree until the fruit formation is complete and harvesting with the stem intact, are important factors. Perfect timing for harvesting determines the taste and sweetness of the fruit,” says Hari Sethuram of Organic Shandy in Chennai.
Farmer Arya says that those who rushed to taste the mangoes this year by mid-April were in for a disappointment. They were often sour, he says. For such batches of mangoes, farmers have started producing value added products such as mango pulp and mango jam. “We also convert them into mango bars. This is easy to prepare and does not require any preservatives. The shelf life is almost a year,” says Arya. At his farm, they make mango bar using jaggery and lemon juice. A solar dehydration unit will be a valuable addition as there is a huge market for dried mangos overseas, says Arya.
Arya says that organic orchards have had a better yields this year. Farmers attribute it to natural farming methods. “We also use fish amino acids, panchagavya and neem oil during the flowering, budding and fruiting process to ensure that the fruits grow in size,” says Ramnarayan of Natural Mangoes. Even cow dung is processed to increase its virility. Natural farmers normally follow biodynamic farming, and following all these processes meticulously has resulted in better yields and better taste than commercial farming,” says Arya.
Climate change
Over the last five years, there has been extensive discourse on climate change, crop productivity, adoption of natural farming practises. Arya says that there have been conversations about making mango trees immune by strengthening the soil as well.
Organic farmer Shajahan A who owns a 28-acre organic mango grove at Adimalai in Salem feels that some of these climatic changes have resulted in a slight change when it comes to the size and weight of fruits. “More and more farmers are converting their agricultural lands into mango groves as they require less water and few labourers. As a consequence, more acres of mango groves are emerging every year and the state produces a considerable amount of mangoes every season,” he says.
Arya says that native mango varieties sustain all kind of weather conditions. “My loss is minimal when it comes to imam pasand and malgova. Going forward, I will be planting native mango saplings such as panchavarnam, Salem gundu, nadu cholai and neelam too,” he says.
“There seems to be a preference for one or two varieties. But I think everyone must taste different varieties when they are available. Senthuram is a very sweet and flavourful variety but underestimated. Other native varieties, such as nadu cholai, pether and Salem gundu are unique and taste good,” says Gopi.
