After sugar, state to bail out mango growers now

ET reports

THE Maharashtra government seems to have developed “sweet tooth”. Having pumped in hundreds of crore to rescue sugarcane, the cashstarved Maharashtra government is set to help mango.

The state government is giving finishing touches to a financial package for the mango farmers in Konkan, Mantralaya officials told ET. The package could be announced at the cabinet meeting next week, sources said. The state has around 4.5 lakh hectares of land comes under mango orchards, most of it in Konkan. In 2005-06, the state produced more than 6.3 lakh metric tonnes of mangoes. The current season, however, is likely to see the output drop to less than 3 lakh metric tonnes, officials said.

Interestingly, revenue minister Narayan Rane and his bete noire Ramdas Kadam, Leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly, are seen helping the government in finalising the package, sources said. Both the leaders are from Konkan.

The package would be the first major sop for the region since Mr Rane became the revenue minister. “It’s very important for Mr Rane to pull this off for his region. Sugar barons from western Maharashtra and Marathwada have recently cornered huge subsidies for their regions,” sources said.

A substantial drop in the mango output this season has made legislators from Konkan seek a compensation from the government.