Mango growers are getting restless due to the lack of mechanism from the government to deal with the mangoes which are getting ripened amid the lockdown and climate change.
As the mango plucking season is near, mango growers are looking for farmhands and labors to pluck and pack mangoes which are spread over the area of 300 acres in southern Punjab. Mango growers are desperate to pay high wages to book workers and complete the plucking and packing process. Every year nearly 700,000 workers are needed for the whole process, up to 100,000 seasonal laborers from Punjab work in the nearly 100,000 acres of mango orchards of Sindh.
Some mango growers even think it is too late and the government’s inability to deal with the situation from the month of March will result in a huge loss of mango production this year. Experts have warned that mango production in south Punjab this year may drop by up to 23 percent.
On the other hand, growers are also worried that even if all their mangoes are timely plucked and packed, they will not earn the desired profit because of the low local and international demand this year due to coronavirus pandemic.
Moreover, the exporters have also urged the ministry of commerce to extend the final date of mango exports for the current year from Many 20 to June 1 due to the labor issues, climate change, and the situation created by coronavirus lockdown.
The mango crop usually matures by the middle of May, but this year due to climate change, Sindh and Punjab’s mango crop is likely to mature after a delay of two weeks, and exporting pre-matured mango would not be beneficial to growers.
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