Pakistan’s mangoes are usually a source of national pride and a necessary income, but farmers are blaming climate change for pests and extreme weather that are destroying much of this season’s crop.
A white and orange scarf wrapped around his head in the scorching heat, farmer Mohammad Yusuf lamented the unsettled weather.
An unusually long winter was followed by the wettest April in decades, while the country is now experiencing a heat wave with temperatures reaching 52 degrees Celsius (126 degrees Fahrenheit).
“The buds didn’t bloom on time, many buds just died. Those that started growing were infected with (pest) black hopper,” said Yusuf, who has worked half his life growing mangoes.
Now in his late 60s, Yusuf said “climate change has wreaked havoc” on his village of Tanto Alakhyar, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) northeast of the financial hub of Karachi.
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Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of mangoes in the world and agriculture accounts for almost a quarter of its GDP.
Further south in Tando Ghulam Ali, Arsalan, who manages a 900-acre mango orchard, noticed the damage just as the harvest began this week.
“We have production losses of 15 to 20 percent and the collection has just started, so that figure will definitely increase,” the 32-year-old said.
Exports will drop as a result, warned Arsalan, who goes by just one name.
βMangoes turn yellow on the outside but remain underripe or overripe inside,β he explained.
Ziaul Haq, a mango grower and exporter from Tando Ghulam Ali, said the “multiple attacks on fruit” by pests was unprecedented.
“This, in our history, has never happened before,” he told AFP.
“Feed our families”
The proliferation of pests has led to an explosion in pesticide spending.
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This rise was confirmed by several farmers in Sindh province, home to Tando Allahyar and Tando Ghulam Ali, as well as those in the leading agricultural province of Punjab further north.
They told AFP that the chemicals are now used six to seven times a year, compared with just twice three years ago.
Farmers in Sindh said they have been struggling since 2022, when a series of severe heatwaves followed unprecedented floods, while those in Punjab said declining crop yields date back several years.
“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 Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Federation (PFVA).
Speaking to local media, he said that last year Pakistan managed to export only 100,000 of the 125,000 tonnes of mangoes it planned to sell abroad.
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Pakistan’s 20 varieties of mangoes are second only to oranges as the most productive fruit in the country.
Loss of income from a poor harvest could have a significant impact on the country, which is in talks to secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Mashooq Ali, a 30-year-old laborer at Tando Ghulam Ali, wants the government to help farmers make ends meet.
“Landowners will earn less this year,” said Ali, whose wife has started trading clothes to earn extra cash.
“And even if they paid us as much as last year, with inflation, we won’t be able to feed our families.”
Source: AFP