Shahzad Akhtar
LUCKNOW: At the upcoming symposium “National Dialogue on Mango Improvement and Strategies” to be held at the Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (CISH) in Rehmankheda, experts from India, Australia, and Israel will collaborate on a roadmap to enhance mango productivity and quality.
This international meeting will be useful for mango growers of the entire country, especially North India, but will be most useful for Uttar Pradesh due to its highest production of mango.
There is a great demand for Dussehri of Malihabad in Lucknow and Chaunsa (late ripening variety) grown in the districts around Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh. There is also a great possibility of their export after improvement in quality. The Yogi government is also building an export hub near Jewar International Airport. Cold storage and ripening chambers are also being constructed in the mandis to protect the produce of farmers cultivating fruits and vegetables.
Director of Central Institute of Subtropical Horticulture T Damodaran said that the institute is also working in this direction with a cluster approach.
In this sequence, about 4000 gardeners have been linked to them by forming some clusters of the above two species. They are being told how they can rejuvenate their 15-year-old gardens through canopy management. This will increase their yield over time and the quality of fruits will also improve.
Secretary Ashish Yadav, organizer of the seminar, said that the fruit protection and water resistance technique of Central Institute of Subtropical Horticulture has also received a good response from the gardeners. In this, the fruits are covered with paper bags.
This prevents them from getting infected by diseases and insects. There are no stains. Also, the color of the ripe fruits also improves. At a cost of only two rupees per bag, these fruits are sold in the market at double the price.
Mango is anyway a source of employment for lakhs of people in UP. With the introduction of fruit protection and water resistance techniques, the possibility of employment at the local level will increase further.
Initially, such bags used to come from China, but even now most of the bags come from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Supply has also started from Meerut and some other cities in UP. As the demand increases, these will also be manufactured locally and this will also provide employment.
According to Ashish Yadav, Dr. Natalie Dillon, Senior Biotechnologist and Dr. Ian S.E. Balli, Senior Horticulture Specialist Queensland, (Australia), Dr. Yuval Cohen, Researcher of Volcani Institute, ARO, Israel, Dr. VB Patel will participate in the seminar.
This seminar will prove to be a guide for scientists and gardeners doing research on mango.
