The heat wave is a vivid example of the challenge India faces in ensuring its food security as the effects of climate change worsen, compounding its difficulties in raising agricultural productivity to international standards to feed a growing population of nearly 1.4 billion
Unripe mangoes that fell during a recent storm are gathered in Malihabad, India, May 23, 2022. Blistering spring temperatures have devastated crops of the country’s most beloved fruit. (Saumya Khandelwal/The New York Times)
MALIHABAD, India — No fruit in India is as universally loved and as eagerly anticipated as the mango, which, for one brief window each year, cools and sweetens the long days of summer.
Mangoes are added to kebabs, used to sour dishes and pureed with mint to make refreshing drinks. Connoisseurs argue fervently about which of India’s dozens of varieties — each with a distinct flavor, color and texture — are best and disagree politely about the correct way to eat the fruit: by cutting it into slices or by sucking the juice straight from the top.
But this year, this centuries-old ritual is imperiled. As blistering heat has struck northern India weeks earlier than usual, mango crops have been devastated, threatening a way of life for the thousands of small farmers who grow the fruit and the millions more who consume it.
The heat wave is a vivid example of the challenge India faces in ensuring its food security as the effects of climate change worsen, compounding its difficulties in raising agricultural productivity to international standards to feed a growing population of nearly 1.4 billion.
The dangers of a hotter future are achingly visible on a small farm in Malihabad, a prime northern mango-growing district, where Mohammed Aslam tends about 500 trees.
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