Vijayawada: Farmer’s hopes of a better mango yield this year have become bleak with the fungus attack in Nuzvid area.
The ‘sooty mould’ called as ‘mangu tegulu’ locally, has engulfed the mango orchards in the entire area. In fact, the effect of sooty mould was there everywhere in Andhra Pradesh, according to horticulture department officials.
The disease is a combination of two things. It starts with a pest called mango hopper which lives inside the bark of mango trees and will come out during flowring season. It eats away the flowers and releases a thick sticky liquid.
The sooty mould fungus will develop wherever the pest releases the liquid damaging the flowering. A thick black layer has formed on the trees as if they were sprayed with some kind of colour with uncontrollable fungus grown on trees.
Though the orchards have flowered heavily this year, with the pest attack, the trees were not fructified in the area. The effect of virus was seen heavily on Banginapalli and Chinna Rasaalu, which are the major varieties of the area. Farmers are complaining that the yield will come down by more than 50 per cent this year as many trees did not fructified yet. As March has entered and the trees were still in the flowering stage, it is most unlikely that fruits will develop from now, said a farmer from Adavi Nekkalam, A. Sambasiva Rao.
“We have sprayed pesticide multiple times but the pest cannot be controlled this year,” said another farmer from Kanasana-palli, T. Giridhar.
He said they recieve very little help from the horticulture department in containing the virus. He said, “On one hand officials encourage minimising the use of pesticide, but when it comes to situations like this, they do not come to our rescue,” he bemoaned.
