Climate change and brick kilns may rob Dussehri of sweetness

LUCKNOW: Famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib had once said, "Aam khoob ho aur meethe ho," (mango must be in plenty and sweet) after having tasted Lucknow's famous Dusseheri variety of mango. However, this time the king of fruit is likely to lose on both counts - volume and sweetness.
The blame for this goes to the increasingly unpredictable weather pattern and climate change that have taken a toll on the mango crop in the state this year.Adding to this are the brick kilns that have also played a wicked role as far as the mango crop is concerned. There is uncertainty over the yield and horticulture experts are predicting a sharp fall in production.
Estimates made by horticulturists suggest that mango production this year would be down by 30%-40% in different areas. UP has the largest area of 0.27 million hectares under mango and the total production during 20012-13 was estimated at around 3.2 million tonnes with a productivity rate of about 10 million tonne per hectare. But this is now likely to decrease by 30% on an average.
With this, mango exports are also likely to be hit this year. Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries are the biggest markets for UP mangoes in which Lucknow's 'Dusseheri' figures among the top. Side by side, the mango this year is also expected to be costlier in the domestic market.
The trend held true for other parts of the country, including mango producing states like Maharashtra, Orissa and Kerala, said director, H Ravishankar, director of Central Institute of Sub-tropical Horticulture. He further added that prolonged cold conditions coupled with unseasonal rains had affected the mango crop. This induced recurrent flowering, which was not good for the crop production, he said.
When asked to comment, a well-known mango grower from Malihabad, Kalimmulla said, "It is difficult to predict the yield this year due to prolonged flowering. Such a situation has risen perhaps due to the impact of climate change. The coming years may even witness harsher trends, if the same weather patterns prevail." The prolonged flowering that lasted till February this year had delayed fruit formation and the fruits are expected to ripe only during early monsoon, he said.
Further the concern is expressed that if the fruits ripen during early monsoon, possibilities of worms affecting them are more. This would bring down the quality of the fruit and the yield as well. Worse, the yield will take a hit if there are pre-monsoon showers. Fruit fall from rain would occur, causing loss to the growers, says BP Ram, chief horticulturist of the estate department.
Apart from the weather conditions, brick kilns have also posed a serious threat to mango crop. There are estimated to be more than 5,000 brick kilns in Uttar Pradesh, with most of them located in districts where mango production is high, including Lucknow and its surrounding districts. Incidentally, most of them have been set up in utter violation of the government's own policy that seeks their prohibition in the fruit belt.
The Supreme Court in its ruling in February last year had made environmental impact assessment mandatory for mining all minor minerals, including soil, irrespective of the size of the lease area. Brick kiln owners across the country had protested this ban on mining of brick earth and acting under their pressure, the Union ministry of environment and forest had agreed to relax the ban. The government has tried many times to clamp down on the brick manufacturing industry for its impact on agricultural land and environment, but it could never achieve the desired result in the absence of policies to promote alternative to the traditional earthen bricks.
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency encourages using eco-friendly construction material like fly ash bricks, its guidelines are voluntary. The ban and the agitation that followed have slowed down the production of bricks at a time when the demand of bricks has been rising steadily.
According to UNDP, India produces about 140 billion bricks a year against its demand for 200 billion bricks. The use of other bricks such as fly ash bricks has still not picked up. While in most countries the furnace system of making bricks has been discarded, India, the world's second largest producer of bricks, is yet to adopt advanced technologies for brick making. The method of making bricks in earthen kilns is perhaps the oldest method of firing bricks that is still being used in the country
. In this method unbaked bricks are stacked with fuel under or among them and then fire is set to the structure.
It has been found that mangoes in groves within two kilometres of a brick kiln are affected with black tip disease. Horticulturists say that emission of smoke from brick kilns reduces the boron absorption of the mango leaves, leading to the blackening and hardening of the flesh at the lower part of the fruits. Besides, fractured and downsized fruits are also detected within this range of brick kilns.
Environment and horticulture experts advocate the use of newer technologies so that the demand for bricks can be met without causing extensive damage to soil and vegetation.