KANGAR: The Perlis Agriculture Department has set a target of over 2,000 metric tons for this season’s Harumanis mango harvest, set to begin as early as the third week of March.
Perlis Agriculture, Plantation and Food Industry Committee chairman Razali Saad said the target was based on the potential harvest and the fruit-bearing areas of 1,611.59 hectares as of last January, from a total area of 1,745.79 hectares planted with the mango in the state.
“This year, the harvest is expected to rise according to the current estimate of flowers, if there are still more flowers in March, the harvest might be even more. The number of fruit farmers have also risen to 2,693 people with an additional four orchards compared to last year.
“Farmers who plant Harumanis in their own properties are advised to wrap the fruits within eight weeks to guarantee its quality. There are about 10 to 15 per cent of Harumanis farmers who plant the fruits in the confines of their residential properties,” he told reporters after a walkabout in conjunction with a state Harumanis promotional campaign here today.
He said the state Agriculture Department would also assist in efforts to ensure that the harvested fruits were more mature to avoid sour fruits through courses and advisories and would look for solutions to attacks by newly identified pests in several locations in the state.
“They (the Agriculture Department) have identified new pests capable of affecting the qualify of Harumanis in several locations around Perlis and are still studying them as they have found three cases, two in Bintong (Kangar) and one in Titi Tinggi (near Padang Besar),” he added. -Bernama
