AURANGABAD - The recent untimely heavy rains and hailstorm in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, have left behind a badly affected yield of mangoes, papayas, and pomegranate.

The most affected are the farmers who took to horticulture.

Hundreds of orchards of papaya and mango fruits have been adversely affected due to three-days of heavy rains in the region.

“Because of unexpected rains and thunderstorm, the trees and produce of pomegranate, papaya and mangoes have been extensively damaged to the extent of 80 percent for papayas and between 25 to 40 percent for the other fruits. The roots have been damaged and we are assessing overall losses and other damages caused to the farmers,” noted Dattatreya Giri, Horticulture officer, Wankhede Sub-Division, Aurangabad.

Aurangabad is a major source of mangoes for export purposes. However, the torrential rains this season have caused a set back to the scope of exporting fruits.

“Every year from this farm we used to do an export of 60 to 70 percent of our produce but due to this loss we won’t be able to even export five percent of the yield. Rest of our production has been damaged. We don’t even expect these mangoes to be consumed in the local market,” said Vinayak Prathikar, a farmer.

Nearly all farmers in the country depend upon weather Gods for a good yield. But the untimely rains causes losses of huge amounts. (ANI)