Farmers pitch for ‘Mango Board’, seek Vice-President’s intervention

Farmers are exploited in the absence of scientific marketing modules

The mango growers of Rayalaseema region observe that though their dream of a Mango Board, on the lines of the one for tobacco, coconut, and rubber, has eluded them for several decades, there is no question of abandoning it at any cost.

A delegation of mango growers from Chittoor met Vice-President M. Venkakaiah Naidu in New Delhi on May 4, seeking his intervention to support their demand. The farmers also have plans to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Traditional families involved in mango cultivations for generations in Rayalaseema and coastal areas observe that they remained exposed to exploitation owing to the absence of any scientific marketing modules. Though India happens to be the apex producer of mangoes, with a global share of 55%, there is no Central board for it, leaving the growers high and dry, year after year, thrown to the vagaries of nature and exploitation due to a deeply entrenched middleman system.

Mango growers of Andhra Pradesh are at the forefront responding to the clarion call for a united fight to achieve their demand for a Mango Board.

Andhra Pradesh is considered the leader in mango production, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, and the southern States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Kerala. The mango growers cite the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) to contend that Andhra Pradesh produces 24.45 lakh metric tonnes of mangoes annually, of the national output of 11 million tonnes. Of the 10.23 lakh hectares of mango plantations, the share of Andhra Pradesh stands at 3.50 lakh hectares. Of this, Chittoor district accounts for 1.50 lakh hectares.

Former Chittoor MLA, N.P. Venkateswara Chowdary, who led the delegation, happens to be a mango grower, carrying the legacy of his forefathers.

After conducting an extensive research on the crop patterns, travails of mango growers, natural calamities, and marketing trends in India, Mr. Chowdary has taken it as his life ambition to realise the mango board, in the absence of which the “worst affected would be the growers of Andhra Pradesh.”