Banganapalle Mango Orchards Empty, Thanks To Election Campaign In AP 

Visakhapatnam: Mango, the fruit of the season is facing a major setback in the election time and the vigorous campaigning. Traders say that the labourers are taking part in the door-to-door campaigning or are going for road shows for their MLA candidates, thus leading to a paucity of labours in the orchards at the time when plucking is at its peak.

In the two districts of Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram, mango is the main horticulture crop in about 35 mandals, grown over 20,000 hectares.

The harvesting time begins in April and the first 30 days is the most crucial time.

According to experts, mango-plucking is a laborious process and if the fruit is not plucked on time, there is always the fear of pest attack and also over-ripening.

This season, already 11-15 crucial days of the month have passed and most of the mangoes are still in the orchards and have not reached the market.

According to officials of the horticulture department, the 'collector' variety is the major grown across the two districts.

The variety reached the market first as they mature early, followed by Suvarnarekha and Banganapalli. The other two varieties mature usually at the months of May to June.

An official said that usually collector is the one that reaches the market first and traders who arrive early, usually gets the best price. But with the election time, the labourers are involved in the campaigning, thus making it an unavoidable situation.

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