While mango farmers have already reported massive flower and fruit drop, the sudden and early onset of summer will also adversely affect lychee, citrus fruits, watermelons, bananas, and cashew crops, experts said. Vegetables like cabbage, cauliflowers, leafy vegetables, and tomatoes will not only be of lower size but of lower nutritional content, they said.
“We estimate that there will be a loss of 10% to 30% for different fruit and vegetable crops in different regions due to the sudden increase in temperatures,” said SK Singh, director of Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR), Bengaluru. “The fruit crops that are immediately affected are mangoes, lychee, citrus crops like kinnow and oranges, bananas and avocados.”
Production of high-value Alphonso mangoes in Maharashtra is likely to be hit by about 40%, farmers said.
Crop scientists said high heat coupled with higher humidity has increased pest and fungus infestation.
Normally, temperatures increase gradually around the Holi festival, which falls on March 8 this year. However, this time, the temperature started soaring immediately after the winter.
Last month was the hottest February on record for the country with the average maximum temperature at 29.5 degrees Celsius.
Heat Wave may Impact Quality
“The minimum night temperature is higher than usual and the difference between the day and night temperature has narrowed down with the result that there is a lesser opportunity for crops to recover from heat stress (from high day temperature) in the night time,” said Praveen Pankajakshan, head of AI Lab at Cropin, a startup providing agricultural intelligence.
Vegetable supply may also become irregular with early maturing likely leading to some periods of excess supplies and some shortages, increasing worries about food inflation, experts said.
“We might see early ripening in tomatoes in some regions,” Pankajakshan said. “Farmers might bring their produce to the market earlier than anticipated, resulting in excess during some periods and shortage during harvesting.”
Agriculture experts think that except the hills and lower hills, vegetable crops grown in the Gangetic plains can face losses due to flower drop, wilting of plants and smaller size.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted “enhanced probability of occurrence of heat wave” between March and May in central and northwest India.
The heat would also hit the quality of fruits and vegetables.
“Due to the sudden increase in temperature, the development of bananas will not be uniform, which will result in economic losses for the farmers as irregular fruits do not fetch premium prices,” Singh of IIHR said. “We may see a drastic fall in size and nutritional value of vegetables like cabbage, cauliflowers, broccoli and some leafy vegetables,” he added.
Lychee and mangoes are extremely heat-sensitive crops. Their blossoms are drying out as they need cooler night-time temperatures.
Alphonso mango growers from the Konkan coast of Maharashtra are struggling to reduce losses to the extremely weather-sensitive crop.
“Farmers across the four districts of Konkan have reported massive fruit drop due to the sudden rise in temperatures in February,” said Chandrakant Mokal, president of Maharashtra State Mango Growers’ Association.