The three districts of the Konkan – Ratnagiri, Sindhdurgh and Raigad have been witnessing varying intensities of rainfall over the last week and this is expected to continue till the end of this month. The late unseasonal showers are not part of the regular monsoon but are due to low pressure systems developed over the Bay of Bengal and the Deccan plateau. Though the brunt of the rain has been borne by Telangana and Eastern part of Maharashtra, the Konkan belt has also been hit.
The conditions were overall quite conducive for a healthy mango flowering and it looks like this will be largely unaffected by the unseasonal rains. It remains to be seen what the actual impact of this will be though some amount of loss of flowering is bound to happen.
We expect first flowering to start from early November and the gradual onset of winter and colder temperatures will further aid the flower setting. Alphonso mango is an extremely sensitive fruit and is very vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather – cold temperatures, scorching heat or rains.
The entire country has had more than its fair share of problems with Covid in 2020 and hoping for a much healthier and abundant 2021.
