It is around noon with no escape from the scorching sun.

A few young villagers are bathing in a small water channel with their buffaloes, who are also taking a dip to beat the heat.

The water channel is part of the Rohri canal system of the Sukkur Barrage. This channel passes by an orchard of mangoes. As this scribe enters the space, some voices are audible from a corner of the orchard.

A man beckons me to move to a corner of the orchard where half a dozen workers are present in a circle under the canopy of a mango tree. Unripe mangoes are scattered there with a sweet smell pervading in all parts of the orchard.

The workers' necks are craned upwards to the trees, where nearly half a dozen helpers pluck unripe mangoes. The workers undertake the task with no visible precautions, climbing up 30-feet on a tree to harvest the mangoes — the practice which is called pattaee — to pluck — in the local parlance.

“It’s a routine job for us every season when pattaee begins," says a bearded man with a strong physique named Farman.

“When we go home after a long day's work, we sleep as if we have taken some sleeping pills," he says while highlighting the labour-intensive nature of the job.

Every summer, vehicles laden with mangoes reach wholesale markets from all parts of lower Sindh, carrying a variety of different types depending on the stage of the season.

There are several sobriquets to identify the fruit of different origins. Sindhri arrives in the market in June’s first week. While Saroli, Daseri — being early varieties — precede the Sindhri in the market. Before June, Sindhri’s taste is generally not palatable.

The mango enjoys an exalted status among fruits and is described as the 'king of fruits'. It has also been the cynosure of Urdu works as the writings of celebrated poets like Mirza Ghalib and Akbar Allahabadi have references giving special significance to the fruit.

Ghalib’s passion for the mango is quite known.

“Aamo main buss do khubiyan honi chahiye, ek meethe ho aur bohut saare ho (mangoes need to have two qualities: They must be sweet and in abundance)” is his most quoted observation about his love for mangoes.

Plucking mangoes with the aim to store them undamaged is what Farman and his co-worker Amjad have to ensure as the latter carries an empty plastic bag for the job.

“We can’t otherwise handle the fruits thrown towards us at great speeds if there is no bag with us," remarks Amjad. The bag is attached to wooden sticks at their ends. Mangoes thrown by Farman and his fellow workers from the tree are caught in the bag and then gently placed on the ground.

Farman expertly maintains his balance while deftly picking mangoes with his practised hand. “Pakarr, pakarr [catch it, catch it]," he shouts excitedly to alert his fellow worker down below so that he doesn't miss any.

“Each dropped mango means increased wastage," says one of the workers.

Once a considerable quantity of mangoes pile up, others shift them to another portion of the orchard where they are sorted, graded and packed.

Wooden crates — bardana in the market’s parlance — are kept in large quantities and are packed with the fruit for transport to the market. Different sizes of bardana carry 10kg to 13kg of fruits.

A chemical compound, calcium carbide, is put in each crate to accelerate the ripening of the fruit. “Take it, it is shaakh ka aam (a mango ripened enough before being plucked)," says a worker while offering a fresh mango to this scribe to taste.

While harvesting is typically done with the conventional pattaee, there are some progressive mango producers who adopt modern scientific for the exercise.

Ghulam Sarwar Abro owns a 350-acre orchard in Thatta district. “Each mango has to be plucked with a device along with its little stem. It is done to avoid sap burn on mangoes," he said. The plucked mangoes are then desapped by the workers.

“This practice ensures the quality of the fruit," he said. Fruits at his huge orchard are then processed in a pack house. Sap burn is a post-harvest disorder that reduces storage life of fruit.

The process involves multiple stages including hot water treatment (HWT) a prerequisite for export to Europe's high-end markets. The procedure also maintains the temperature of mangoes until it reaches its ultimate destination.

He has been, until recently, exporting mangoes from his orchard directly as well as through a company of mango growers.

Drop in production

Farman’s friend, Tharu Jaskani, believes this year every orchard has lesser volume of mangoes as compared to last year. "I don’t find enough mangoes on branches which were laden with it last year," he says.

A mango contractor, Rasool Bux Memon, believes this year’s production has reduced, fearing a 40pc to 50pc drop in production. He blames this year’s poor crop on the [water shortage][1] mainly and pest attacks on trees which were beyond control.

High-velocity winds are also usually reported around May before the arrival of mangoes. Winds make unripe mangoes fall prematurely and contribute to wastage.

The ratio of smaller-sized Sindhri is a bit high this year, which otherwise has considerable weight and size.

“Besides the unavailability of water in orchards at a critical time, other issues should be factored in to understand the decline in production," remarks Sindh Abadgar Board Vice President Mahmood Nawaz Shah.

Among other issues, he says, gusty winds on May 2 harmed mango harvesting sites in the entire region.

“We are witnessing undersized mangoes in a large quantity this year that can be linked to climate change-driven weather patterns. Then a major pest of mangoes, the hopper, proved to be disastrous for production," he says. Hoppers are tiny insects that affect trees and fruit equally.

Orchard owner Rasool Bux Memon agrees with the production estimates. “Of course, a considerable decline in mango production is seen this year," he says. "Water shortages hit orchards while diseases here cannot be controlled."

"The drop in mango production this year will be around 50pc compared to last year’s production," says Abro.

“Water availability is important at the time of maturity and it wasn’t available in many orchards this year," he remarks.

He says the temperature also played a major role in the low production. “In January, temperatures varied between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius in the daytime which should have been 18 to 20C. This affected the formation of buds in the stem," he said.

Renting out mango orchards

There is a strong tendency among growers of Sindh to let out their orchards to farmers. It can be attributed to lethargy among orchard owners, who tend to have an easy-going mango economy instead of managing orchards like other crops including the yearlong sugarcane.

The system has been in vogue for as long as one can remember. Contractors either rent orchards for multiple years or enter into short-term contracts till the disposal of the entire mango crop.

“Renting out the mango orchard is like a tradition among orchard owners. But they also lack understanding of mango marketing dynamics", says Mehmood, a progressive grower from the lower Sindh region.

“They perhaps don’t want to take care of crop as it requires the typical kind of work which they (growers) tend to avoid”, he says. He, however, agrees that this is no reason to outsource them.

“Take my case. While I manage my family farm in Tando Allahyar I am letting out another in Hyderabad to a contractor. Mango contractors mostly deal with only a single crop. So, we (growers) mostly feel they (contractors) have the acquired expertise to deal with it," he says.

They arrange seasonal labourers quickly and know market dynamics more than growers, who focus on other major crops like cotton, sugarcane, wheat and rice.

Nawab Zubair Talpur, another mango producer, agrees with Mehmood's viewpoint. "Around 90pc [of orchard] owners avoid managing mango harvests and let out their farms to contractors, who are well versed with mango marketing," he says.

In fact, he says, contractors and wholesale market commission agents have an "alliance" and the market players who dominate everything there.

"We can't handle it simply. My brother once tried to deal with the mango crop on his own but failed," Zubair recalls. He says orchard contractors have market-related links all over Pakistan. "So, it is easy for them to manage one or multiple orchards at a time", he adds.

The contractors start searching for orchards in the Jan-Feb period — a time when flowering, which locally is called "boor", starts appearing in mango trees.

The flowering stage is followed by fruit-setting which gives a fair idea to both growers and contractors to sign deals for letting out orchards. Once this deal is agreed upon between two sides, it is then a contractor’s headache to manage the crop regardless of any temperature variation, high-velocity winds or any other extraneous factors.

All these factors do have a direct effect on crops that can go either way. And it is then the contractor’s fortune if he makes the most of it or incurs losses. But given the strong culture of orchards outsourcing, contractors do not end up as losers.

This year, however, contractors are said to have suffered losses in crops, whose production is affected by disease, temperature variation and gusty winds that have blown off a significant number of mature fruit. Some contractors had cancelled their deals halfway, arguing they would incur more losses if they start harvesting fruit.

“The production is hit by around 40pc to 50pc”, claims Rasool Bux, who also works as a contractor. He says he tried to control pests in his orchard but in vain.

“A considerable quantity of fruit fell in all orchards in May’s first week when strong winds visited them," he says referring to the high-velocity winds on May 2 that made mature fruit fall from trees.

His manager at a Tando Jam orchard, Yasin Ghanchi, points out that this year traders like Memon have borne losses. “Although the rate is impressive like Rs700 to Rs1,000 per 10kg wooden mango box, overall production is less, which could otherwise have led to better returns. He too agrees with Rasool Bux's estimates of fruit production. “Around 40pc fruit is less compared with last year’s output," he says.

By June 6, Yasin’s estimate of a 27-acre orchard’s output was that the crop will be finished in the next eight days. “Such reports are pouring in from other orchards that labourers have retrieved fruits from trees for market supplies," he says.

Punjab’s labourers

Farm labour from Punjab — mainly from the southern belt — arrives in Sindh every mango season around early May. Orchard owners engage them as they are skilled at sorting, filling and packing mangoes. These are in addition to local labourers like Farman and his colleagues who deal with the plucking of mangoes.

Even during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when transportation was banned and the contagion’s spread was at its peak in Sindh, the labourers reached the province somehow from Punjab through goods transport to earn their annual income.

“They stay in one or the other orchard in a month-long season," says Rasool Bux Memon.

Orchard owners bear the cost of their lodging and boarding in addition to their daily wages.

Tanvir Qureshi, one such labourer from southern Punjab’s Muzaffargarh district, is visiting Sindh for the last decade for this yearly earning. “It is my hobby to work here during the mango season," he says, adding: “Many other fellow workers had also arrived in Sindh even during the coronavirus emergency, but I didn’t."

This chunk of travelling labour is from Bahawalpur, Multan, Pirwala, Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Lodhran and Layyah. “The mango season is also about to begin in Punjab. We will be preparing to return home," he says. He and his fellow workers also work in kinnow fields in Sargodha when harvesting begins and travel to Quetta for apple harvests, too.

Horticulture official figures show that Sindh's mango orchards span 59,109 hectares till 2019. Per the latest figures, that amounts to 329,300 tons of production with 5.57tons per ha or 56.36 maunds per acre yields.

This was not so in the past, as the area and production were higher. Sindh-wide orchards cover stood at 63,100ha until 2013 with 402,500 tons of production having 6.38 tons per ha or 64.55 maunds per acre yields.

The orchards invariably remained intact on 62,000 ha until 2017, producing around 400,000 tons of mangoes. From 2018 onwards the orchard area dropped 59,150ha in 2018 and 59,109ha in 2019. Figures for 2020 and 2021 were not yet made available.

Header photo: A seller with open crates of mangoes. —Photo by Umair Ali