Heat Wave Shrivels Mango Crop for Egypt’s Farmers

A farmer arranges mangoes after the yield dropped due to fungus linked to global warming, in Ismailia, Egypt, July 26, 2021. (Reuters)
A farmer arranges mangoes after the yield dropped due to fungus linked to global warming, in Ismailia, Egypt, July 26, 2021. (Reuters)
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Heat Wave Shrivels Mango Crop for Egypt’s Farmers

A farmer arranges mangoes after the yield dropped due to fungus linked to global warming, in Ismailia, Egypt, July 26, 2021. (Reuters)
A farmer arranges mangoes after the yield dropped due to fungus linked to global warming, in Ismailia, Egypt, July 26, 2021. (Reuters)

The mango groves of Egypt’s Ismailia province, normally humming with harvesting activity in July, have been quiet this summer following an unexpected heat wave that has ruined much of the crop and hurt farmers’ livelihoods.

Farmer Adel Dahshan, wearing a white galabeya stained with mango juice, said his farmed areas have yielded just a tiny fraction of their normal bounty.

A sudden heat wave swept the province of Ismailia, which borders the Suez Canal, in early winter and then again in late March, and those hot days and cool nights have disrupted the fruit’s development.

“The weather at night isn’t warm, it’s cold… that affects the growth of the flowers, of the fruit,” said Dahshan, 49. Ayman Abou Hadid, an environment and agriculture professor at Ain Shams University said the irregular temperatures were caused by climate change.

Those fluctuations and increased humidity levels, along with a deadly crop disease that thrives in warmth, have slashed mango production by 50%-80%, according to Hadid, a former agricultural minister.

Standing below a nearly barren mango tree, farmer Yasser Dahshan holds a branch, its once waxy, green leaves consumed by a soot-like growth which blocks the sunlight the fruit needs.

Dahshan, whose orchards have been hit particularly hard by the pest-induced disease, said many Ismailia residents who grow mangoes for a living have lost work as related farming activity has been subdued.

“You see, there is no mango,” he says. “If the crop was good, you’d find people hard at work, picking the mangoes, gathering them, loading them into cars.”

Mangoes are a beloved part of summer in Egypt, sunset-colored varieties normally abundant in fruit stalls and juice shops through the streets of the capital Cairo. This year’s low yield has driven prices up, hurting sellers and customers.

Eid Abou Ali, who owns a roadside fruit stand in Ismailia, said it would take him a week to sell as many mangoes as he would have sold in two or three days a year ago.

“A kilo that once went for 20 pounds now goes for 30 or 35, and people are unwilling to pay,” he said.



Amputee Palestinian Boy Image Wins World Press Photo Award

This image provided by World Press Photo and taken by Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times, won the World Press Photo Award of the Year and shows Mahmoud Ajjour (9), who was injured during an Israeli attack on Gaza City in March 2024, finds refuge and medical help in Doha, Qatar, 28 June 2024. (Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times/World Press Photo via AP)
This image provided by World Press Photo and taken by Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times, won the World Press Photo Award of the Year and shows Mahmoud Ajjour (9), who was injured during an Israeli attack on Gaza City in March 2024, finds refuge and medical help in Doha, Qatar, 28 June 2024. (Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times/World Press Photo via AP)
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Amputee Palestinian Boy Image Wins World Press Photo Award

This image provided by World Press Photo and taken by Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times, won the World Press Photo Award of the Year and shows Mahmoud Ajjour (9), who was injured during an Israeli attack on Gaza City in March 2024, finds refuge and medical help in Doha, Qatar, 28 June 2024. (Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times/World Press Photo via AP)
This image provided by World Press Photo and taken by Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times, won the World Press Photo Award of the Year and shows Mahmoud Ajjour (9), who was injured during an Israeli attack on Gaza City in March 2024, finds refuge and medical help in Doha, Qatar, 28 June 2024. (Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times/World Press Photo via AP)

A haunting portrait of a nine-year-old Palestinian boy who lost both arms during an Israeli attack on Gaza City won the 2025 World Press Photo of the Year Award Thursday.

The picture, by Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times, depicts Mahmoud Ajjour, evacuated to Doha after an explosion severed one arm and mutilated the other last year.

"One of the most difficult things Mahmoud's mother explained to me was how when Mahmoud first came to the realisation that his arms were amputated, the first sentence he said to her was, 'How will I be able to hug you'?" said Elouf.

The photographer is also from Gaza and was herself evacuated in December 2023. She now portrays badly wounded Palestinians based in Doha.

"This is a quiet photo that speaks loudly. It tells the story of one boy, but also of a wider war that will have an impact for generations," said Joumana El Zein Khoury, World Press Photo Executive Director.

The jury praised the photo's "strong composition and attention to light" and its thought-provoking subject-matter, especially questions raised over Mahmoud's future.

The boy is now learning to play games on his phone, write, and open doors with his feet, the jury said.

"Mahmoud's dream is simple: he wants to get prosthetics and live his life as any other child," said the World Press Photo organisers in a statement.

The jury also selected two photos for the runner-up prize.

The first, entitled "Droughts in the Amazon" by Musuk Nolte for Panos Pictures and the Bertha Foundation, shows a man on a dried-up river bed in the Amazon carrying supplies to a village once accessible by boat.

The second, "Night Crossing" by John Moore shooting for Getty Images, depicts Chinese migrants huddling near a fire during a cold rainshower after crossing the US–Mexico border.

The jury sifted through 59,320 photographs from 3,778 photo journalists to select 42 prize-winning shots from around the world.

Photographers for Agence France-Presse were selected four times for a regional prize, more than any other organization.

Nairobi-based Luis Tato won in the "Stories" category for the Africa region for a selection of photos depicting Kenya's youth uprising.

Jerome Brouillet won in the "Singles" category Asia-Pacific and Oceania for his iconic picture of surfer Gabriel Medina seemingly floating above the waves.

Clarens Siffroy won in the "Stories" category North and Central America for his coverage of the gang crisis in Haiti.

Finally, Anselmo Cunha won in the "Singles" category for South America for his photo of a Boeing 727-200 stranded at Salgado Filho International Airport in Brazil.