The onslaught of pre-monsoon rain over the past two days will take a toll on the harvest of Goan varieties of mango. While the thunderstorms, accompanied with gusty winds, have resulted in several fruit drops, the aftermath has created a breeding ground for pests in the king of fruits. “Fruit drops are an obvious consequence of heavy rain. However, the continuous downpour and moisture incursion will increase the population of fruit flies. The quality of mangoes at the time of harvest will be affected,†said A R Desai, senior scientist at the ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Old Goa. He added that there are chances of cashew flowering also being affected due to the current weather conditions. Mango farmer Nestor Rangel, who had previously harvested over 1.5 lakh mangoes from his farm in Valpoi, is not anticipating even 25% of the yield this time around. “There has been a tremendous amount of fruit drops owing to high wind speed. The season is looking very bleak as of now. Even the cashew crop doesn’t look very fruitful,†he told TOI. Director of agriculture Nevil Alphonso said that some places have shown a 30-50% reduction in cashew production. In addition to this, the coconut crop has also been hit. “Some farmers are reporting even up to 70% reduction in cashew fruits,†he said. “In the first batch of harvest, the mancurad mango is only available in small sizes and the first batch of cashew harvest is less than 50% compared to last year,†he said.