PANAJI
Unseasonal rain in February has taken a huge toll as the yield of mango, cashew and chillies has been severely affected in the State.
Price of mangoes has hit an astronomical high while that of cashew and chillies (gavthi mirchi) and other local vegetable has also become very expensive.
Farmers attributed this to bad climatic conditions saying 75 per cent of the crop had either died or wilted which led to a shortage in supply and a rise in price.
"We usually use to get around 50 kgs of chillies but this year the production decreased to just 10 kgs", a farmer said.
As such, the rates of chillies have shot to Rs 1000 per kg which were sold at Rs 250-300 last year.
The yield of different varieties of mangoes like Mancurad, Mussorat, Malgese, Mang Hilario etc has also been affected this year with prices out of reach of the common man.
Cashew crop was also affected with the production taking a big hit. The cashew fruit that usually takes around 80-90 days to develop, took just 65-70 days this season thereby not maturing enough and leading to decrease in volume.
Farmers also lamented over the production of local varieties of tomatoes, brinjals, val papadi and maize.
