by

Salman Saeed

The centre for Science & Development [www.CSEindia.org] has a very interesting magazine called " Down to Earth" which documents the rapid erosion of the biodiversity of fruits indigenous to the south Asian region. Writing about the Mango varieties, it credits the Mughal rulers and Avadh [Lucknow] based Nawabs in Uttar Pradesh [U.P.] and Darbhanga-Bihar as having planted in the "Lakha Bagh" orchards about 100,000 mango seedlings.

Being mango lovers, the Mughal rulers were able to get the finest varieties brought by the people to be planted in their royal gardens. The article mentions the general decline of these famous UP mango orchards. Specifically, it states that the "Anwar Rataul" is "rarely sighted" in India and has become the "number one mango export to West Asia from Pakistan". Overall there has been a 40 % decline in the mango germplasm, This is due mostly to the rural to urban labour migration as youth no longer "see" / perceive mango growing to be of economic advantage to them. Similarly the article mentions rural mango groves that have been cut down to build multi-storeyed residential complexes with "all modern amenities".

The article mentions the two techniques "hybridisation " and "grafting" which are used to create endless new mango varieties A breakthrough technology of Hybridisation came to India about 25 years ago. Here self-sterile /unfruitful varieties were crossed with other varieties to produce new varieties. Some of the new names as a result are Amrapali, Ratna, Niranjan, Sunderdamagara, Alafazli, Lalavia Bhog. As an example, the Amrapali produces about 9 tons per acre in the ninth year of planting - this is about ten times the harvest from most south Asian cultivators.

In hybridisation, the two desired mango tree varieties are planted close to each and the result is basically a waiting game of chance- much like "Waiting for Godot" . Each mango seedling is a unique variety. Haji Kaleemullah khan in Malihabad , Uttar Pradesh is the owner of a tree with about 200 varieties on it. In Harayana, in a village called Burail near Chandigarh is a mango tree with a girth of 32 feet , branches upto 80 feet long, covering an area of 2700 square yards and producing about 37,000 pounds of mangoes every year.

In grafting, another way of mass mango variety production, the mother plant branch with a bud is stuck with the desired plant variety stem with bud - a kind of a "Lego" type snap on technique.