Unfavourable weather’ adds to worries of Bihar’s litchi farmers recovering from 2020 losses

 High temperatures throughout March and heatwaves and hailstorms predicted for April and May might hit yield


In Rameshwar Singh’s three-acre litchi orchard in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, only half the trees have blossomed this year. The rest have just sprouted new leaves. The farmer, who is staring at losses, blamed the heavy water-logging after the surplus monsoon in 2020, followed by irregularities in this year’s weather for the poor flowering.


Singh, like thousands of litchi farmers in the district known as the ‘land of litchis’, was expecting a bumper harvest this year to make up for losses incurred last year due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic restrictions.

But high temperatures throughout March and heatwaves and hailstorms predicted for April and May has them worried about the quantity and quality of yield.

The fruit is harvested in May-June. The ideal pre-harvesting temperature for good fruit growth is 33-35°C, and should not be above 38°C, the farmers and experts said. This threshold was breached by the end of March.


At present, the maximum temperature is hovering around 34-36°C and minimum around 19-21°C, said Abdus Sattar, an agro-meteorologist at Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa in Samastipur district.

With the early advent of warmer days, volume of production will certainly reduce this time, said Bachcha Singh, a litchi farmer and member of farmers’ union Litchi Utpadak Sangh.

“We are helpless as weather is not favourable for litchi farmers. Nothing is in our hands, what can we do?” said Mungeswar Rai, another local litchi cultivator.



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