{O/C} The blistering heat in India has not only afflicted humans, but crops in the world's fruit repository as well.
Tonight, we examine how the record-shattering heat waves are stifling the growth of our delectable juicy buddies.
{Take SOT}
{Upsound 00:00 - 00:01}
Sunlight broke through the dense foliage in farms across the Asian country, but shed no light on when the relentless heat waves will wind down.
This is the befuddling question shared by many farmers in the state of Uttar Pradesh, who lamented their harvest this year had taken a debilitating hammering.
Had it not been for the smothering heat of up to 40 degrees celsius, farmers would have yielded more than 25,000 pounds of fruit in all.
The record-pulverising heat has far surpassed the optimal temperature for fertilisation of mango trees, which is around 25 degrees celsius.
Being the world's mango-producing behemoth, India comprises nearly 50 percent of the global crop. While most of the harvest is consumed domestically, the nation does penetrate the global market with millions of dollars' worth of mangoes every year.
But supply chain disruptions as well as the heat wave have both impinged upon sales.
The bottom of the barrel is now being scraped as farmers are condemned to selling mangoes of low calibre, all can be chalked up to severe weather.
While Uttar Pradesh authorities' estimates have the state's mango production plunging by 20 percent this year, the harvest in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh has been dented by overwhelming downpours.
The harsher conditions are threatening the traditional rituals dating back to hundreds of years ago as mango flowers are withering and dying under the unbearable heat.
If the scorching hot temperatures are to persist interminably, farmers will have to chop the mango trees down with a heavy heart.
Farmers say this phenomenon is unprecedented, with climate scientists citing a significant increase of 30 times since the 19th century.
留言