Pakistan farmers pin poor mango crop on climate change

TANDO ALLAHYAR: Pakistan’s mangoes are normally a source of national pride and much-needed income, but farmers are blaming climate change for the parasites and extreme weather ruining much of this season´s crop.

A white and orange scarf wrapped around his head in the scorching heat, farmer Muhammad Yusuf lamented the erratic weather. An abnormally long winter was followed by the wettest April in decades, while the country is now experiencing a heatwave with temperatures hitting up to 52 degrees Celsius. “Buds didn´t flower on time, many buds just died. Those that started growing were infected with (parasite) black hopper,” said Yusuf, who has worked half his life growing mangoes.

Now over 60 years old, Yusuf said “climate change has wreaked havoc” in his village of Tando Allahyar, around 200 kilometres northeast of economic hub Karachi. Pakistan is the world´s fourth-largest mango producer and agriculture accounts for almost a quarter of its GDP. Exports will be slashed as a result warned Arsalan, who goes by one name. “The mangoes turn yellow from the outside but remain underripe or overripe inside,” he explained. Ziaul Haq, a mango grower and exporter from Tando Ghulam Ali, said the “many attacks on fruit” by pests were unprecedented.

They told AFP that chemicals are now used six to seven times per year, compared to just twice three years ago.

“The losses in Punjab reached 35 to 50 percent and in Sindh, 15 to 20 percent” compared to last year, said Waheed Ahmed, head of the Pakistan Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association (PFVA). Speaking to local media, he said that last year Pakistan had only managed to export 100,000 of the 125,000 tonnes of mangoes it planned to sell abroad.