Directorate of Extension Souvenir

Pusa Mango Day-2015 Wednesday, July 15, 2015 Venue Dr. B.P. Pal Auditorium, IARI, New Delhi

ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi 110012 SouvenirSouvenir Directorate of Extension

Pusa Mango Day-2015

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Venue Dr. B.P. Pal Auditorium IARI, New Delhi

ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi 110012 ©2015 ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi

Citation IARI. 2015. Souvenir of the Pusa Mango Day-2015 compiled and edited by Dr K. Usha, Dr S.K. Singh, Dr A.K. Dubey, Dr M.K. Verma, Dr Manish Srivastav and Dr R.M. Sharma, Division of Fruits and Horticultural Technology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012, held on July 15th, 2015, 46 p. + x

Editors Dr K. Usha Dr S.K. Singh Dr A.K. Dubey Dr M.K. Verma Dr Manish Srivastav Dr R.M. Sharma

Acknowledgement The financial assistance received from NABARD and Directorate of Extension, Krishi Vistar Sadan, Ministry of Agriculture Govt. of India.

Declaration The views presented in this document are those of the author(s) and not necessarily that of the publishers

Published by The Director ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi 110012

Printed at Venus Printers and Publishers, B-62/8, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-110028 Ph. : 45576780, M. : 9810089097, E-mail: [email protected] Pusa Mango Day-2015 Division of Fruits & Horticultural Technology ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi Date: July 15, 2015 Venue: Dr B.P. Pal Auditorium Committees Organizing Committee Dr Ravinder Kaur, Director, IARI Chairperson Dr K.V. Prabhu, Joint Director (Research), IARI Co-Chairperson Dr K. Usha, Head F&HT Organizing Secretary Dr M.K. Verma, Principal Scientist Convener Dr Kanhaiya Singh, Principal Scientist Co-Convener Dr Manish Srivastav, Senior Scientist Co-Convener

Committee Chairpersons & Members Fund Mobilization Dr K. Usha (Chairperson) Dr Kanhaiya Singh Dr Jai Prakash Dr O.P. Awasthi Display Arrangements Dr Kanhaiya Singh (Chairperson) – Fruit Display of Growers Sh. Surinder Pal Sh. Deepak Kumar Dr Manish Srivastav (Chairperson)– Div. F&HT Fruit Display Dr A. Nagaraja Dr R.M. Sharma Sh. Ram Bahadur Dr V.R. Sagar (Chairperson) – Div. FS & PHT Display Dr Ram Asrey (FS&PHT) Dr R.R. Sharma (FS&PHT) Dr R.M. Sharma (Chairperson)– Display of Dishes, Cuisines & Fruit Carving Dr Shruit Sethi (FS&PHT) Dr Shalini Rudra Gaur (FS&PHT) Reception & Registration Dr Awtar Singh (Chairperson) Dr Nimisha Sharma Dr Madhubala Thakre Accommodation & Dr A.K. Dubey (Chairperson) Transport Dr Amit K. Goswami Sh. G.P. Giri Invitation , Publicity & Dr M.K. Verma (Chairperson) Photography R.M. Sharma Dr K. Usha Dr J.P. S. Dabas (CATAT), IARI Publications Dr S.K. Singh (Chairperson) Dr A. K. Dubey Dr M.K. Verma Dr Manish Srivastav Dr R.M. Sharma Hall Arrangements Dr O.P. Awasthi (Chairperson) and Coordination Dr R.M. Sharma Dr A.Nagaraja Dr S.P. Singh Sh. Shish Pal Singh Sh. Satyener Kumar

Assam 142.8 150.7 144.7 1851.8 2073.8 2007.8 13.0 13.8 13.9 Chhattisgarh 185.2 195.6 212.9 1569.2 1702.3 1930.2 8.5 8.7 9.1 Punjab 71.5 74.9 76.6 1419.9 1502.5 1541.2 19.9 20.1 20.1 Jharkhand 83.8 93.0 94.0 850.2 889.7 890.0 10.1 9.6 9.5 Himachal 214.6 218.0 220.7 372.8 555.7 866.3 1.7 2.5 3.9 Pradesh Tripura 54.5 60.1 68.4 644.4 697.9 786.4 11.8 11.6 11.5 Uttarakhand 200.7 200.9 171.6 802.1 805.1 678.5 4.0 4.0 4.0 Rajasthan 48.8 46.5 37.4 613.9 716.8 581.8 12.6 15.4 15.6 Haryana 47.0 49.5 50.6 476.6 516.1 554.9 10.1 10.4 11.0 Manipur 49.5 51.9 54.1 405.9 440.6 515.7 8.2 8.5 9.5 Nagaland 33.7 37.2 40.6 347.7 276.0 411.0 10.3 7.4 10.1 Meghalaya 32.3 33.2 35.3 300.4 316.6 348.0 9.3 9.5 9.9 Mizoram 43.7 49.7 57.6 275.7 293.0 343.9 6.3 5.9 6.0 Arunachal 85.1 86.9 89.1 308.9 312.9 321.3 3.6 3.6 3.6 Pradesh Goa 11.1 11.2 11.3 154.7 80.9 81.2 13.9 7.2 7.2 Andaman & 3.2 3.3 3.6 30.5 30.7 29.7 Nicabar Sikkim 13.4 14.7 16.0 22.5 24.0 24.1 1.7 1.6 1.5 Pudducherry 0.6 0.5 0.6 9.2 9.3 12.6 16.2 19.5 19.7 Lakshadweep 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.5 0.5 2.0 2.2 2.2 Delhi 0.1 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 16.5 0.0 0.0 Havali 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Daman &Diu 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Chandigarh 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total 6704.2 6982.0 7216.3 76424.2 81285.4 88977.1 11.4 11.6 12.3 Source: National Horticulture Database 2014, NHB, Govt. of India.

Major mango producing states in India are Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand. It is also unique in case of mango that it is available for more than nine months in one or the other regions of the country. The mango fruits start maturing from January in Andaman & Nicobar area followed by Kerala where mango starts maturing in February month. By March, mangoes from Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra appear in the market and thereafter, it continue up to August through supplies from northern states. The state wise area, production and productivity is given in Table 3. Among states, Uttar Pradesh rank first in terms of production (4.3 million tonnes) and productivity (16.4 t/ha) followed by Andhra Pradesh (2.74 million tonnes, 9.0 t/ha, respectively). Similarly, Uttar Pradesh contributes 23.3 per cent of total mango production of the country followed by Andhra Pradesh which has 14.3 per cent share in production.

3 Table 3. State-wise area, production and productivity of mango (Source, NHB, 2013-14) State 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Area Prod. Pdy. Area Prod. Pdy. Area Prod. Pdy. Uttar Pradesh 258.3 3840.8 14.9 274.03 4386.99 16.0 262.16 4300.98 16.4 Andhra Pradesh 408.7 3514.8 8.6 489.66 4406.92 9.0 304.11 2737.01 9.0 Karnataka 172.4 1868.3 10.8 178.80 1795.10 10.0 180.53 1755.56 9.7 Telangana 190.88 1717.88 9.0 Bihar 147.4 1241.8 8.4 147.74 1363.80 9.2 149.00 1367.57 9.2 Maharashtra 482.0 503.0 1.0 482.00 633.00 1.3 485.00 1212.50 2.5 Gujarat 136.2 966.0 7.1 141.26 1003.71 7.1 142.69 1125.61 7.9 Tamil Nadu 151.9 889.6 5.9 152.43 714.08 4.7 161.58 785.50 4.9 Odisha 197.2 715.2 3.6 197.46 753.79 3.8 197.52 751.02 3.8 Jharkhand 50.3 515.6 10.3 51.33 517.92 10.1 51.33 517.92 10.1 Kerala 63.8 373.2 5.8 74.44 441.03 5.9 74.44 441.03 5.9 Wast Bengal 90.9 661.5 7.3 92.50 735.00 7.9 93.50 430.71 4.6 Others 218.9 1106.6 5.1 218.37 1251.03 5.7 223.23 1288.04 5.8 Total 2378.1 16196.4 6.8 2500.0 18002.4 7.2 2515.97 18431.33 7.3 Source: National Horticulture Database 2014, NHB, Govt. of India.

National Institute Engaged in Mango Research • Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi • State Agriculture Universities (SAUs) • Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (CISH), Lucknow • Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore • Indian Institute of Agricultural Research (IARI), New Delhi • All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) – Centres in different parts of the country

Mango Trade Scenario Government policies and initiatives during last few decades opened new vistas in mango export. Under chapter 16 of Exim Policy 2001, a new concept of Agri-Export Zone (AEZ) has been introduced by Govt. of India. APEDA is the Nodal Agency to coordinate the efforts on the part of Central Govt. Total 60 AEZ (APEDA) including 23 for fruits were identified. The concept of Agri-export zone involves a comprehensive look at a particular produce/product located in a contiguous area for the purpose of developing and sourcing the raw materials, their processing/ packaging, leading to final exports. The entire effort is centered on the cluster approach for identified the potential product(s) in a contiguous geographical region in which these products are grown. It envisages adoption of an end-to-end approach by integrating the entire supply chain right from the production till it reaches the targeted importing country.

4 Table 4. Agri-Export Zones for Mangoes Commodity State Districts covered Mangoes Uttar Pradesh Lucknow, Unnao, Hardoi, Sitapur and Barabanki, Sahranpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnaur, Meerut, Baghpat, Bulandshahar and Jyotibafulenagar Mango pulp Andhra Pradesh Chittoor Mango (Alphanso) Maharashtra Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Raigarh and Thane Mango (Kesar) Maharashtra Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed, Latur, Ahmednagar and Nasik Mangoes (Kesar) Gujarat Ahmedabad, Khaida, Anand, Vadodra, Surat, Navsari, Valsad, Bharuch and Narmada Mango (Banganpalli) Andhra Pradesh Ranga Reddy, Medak & Parts of Mahaboobnagar district Mangoes (Banganpalli) Andhra Pradesh Krishna Mangoes (Fazli, West Bengal Malda and Murshidabad Langra, Lakhanbhog, Amrapali, Mallika and Himsagar) Mangoes Tamil Nadu Districts of Madurai, Theni, Dindigul, Virudhunagar and Tirunelveli

India is also a prominent exporter of fresh mangoes to the world. The country has exported ,998.31 MT of fresh mangoes to the world for the worth of Rs. 302.54 crores during the year 2014-15. The major export destinations during 2014-15 were United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Qatar. During 2013-14, the fresh mango export was at a tune of 41279.97 MT worth Rs. 28542.85 lakh. The share of mango pulp and fresh mangoes in export of total horticultural

Table 5. Fresh mango export from the Indian (Source, APEDA, January, 2015) Country 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Qty. Value Qty. Value Qty. Value United Arab Emirates 22014 10737 37599 16287 23047 17231 United Kingdom 2532 1642 3304 3250 3381 4545 Saudi Arabia 2389 1170 1665 1200 1722 1219 Kuwait 731 540 828 840 4601 824 Qatar 816 329 1523 887 770 655 United States 353 221 242 578 242 562 Singapore 599 358 650 420 546 504 Bangladesh 27599 4059 4650 776 2900 411 Bahrain 624 290 497 261 635 404 Nepal 3926 671 2238 610 1106 323 Others 1858 958 2388 1363 2330 1866 Total 63441 20974 55585 26472 41280 28543

5 Table 6. Mango pulp export from the Indian Country 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Qty. Value Qty. Value Qty. Value Saudi Arabia 45686 15684 43448 13218 44390 21642 Yemen Republic 18290 5075 25203 8226 37175 11347 Netherland 16689 9262 11236 6391 14229 9928 United Arab Emirates 11297 4083 11737 4359 9097 4584 Sudan 2399 839 6305 2628 6318 3194 United States 4042 2514 3784 2668 3605 2707 China Republic 2892 1560 2876 1763 3371 2540 United Kingdom 5625 2848 3199 2052 3324 2393 Kuwait 8671 3260 4761 2098 2921 1658 Germany 2333 1405 1559 1142 24249 1632 Others 32576 15552 33709 16310 26182 15672 Total 150499 62083 147816 60856 174860 77295 Source: APEDA, January, 2015. produce comes to 5.4 and 2.0 per cent, respectively. India has been successful in export of mango to European as well as American markets. During 2008-2010, mango and products were exported to United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany and Belgium etc. The constraints in mango export includes lack of post-harvest infrastructure, high cost of obtaining certification for exports, lack of consistency in supply and quality, lack of cost competitiveness, inadequate and inappropriate storage and distribution infrastructure etc.

Mango Export Requirements As defined by the APEDA, the specification requirement for mango export mangoes shall be fruits obtained from varieties (cultivars) of plant Mangifera indica L. of Anacardiaceae family.

Minimum Requirements (i) Mangoes shall be • whole, firm, sound and fresh in appearance. Produce affected by rotting or deterioration such as to make it unfit for consumption is excluded; • clean, practically free of any visible foreign matter; • free of black necrotic stains or trails; • free of marked bruising; • free of abnormal external moisture, excluding condensation following removal from cold storage; • free from damage caused by low/or high temperature;

6 • free of any foreign smell and/or taste; • free of damage caused by pests; • sufficiently developed and display satisfactory ripeness; (ii) When a peduncle is present, it shall not be no longer than 1.0 cm. (iii) Mangoes shall comply with the residue levels of heavy metals, pesticides and other food safety parameters as laid down by the Codex Alimentarius Commission for exports.

Grade Requirements Extra class Mangoes must be of superior quality. They must be characteristic of the variety. They must be free of defects, with the exception of very slight superficial defects, provided these do not affect the general appearances of the produce, the quality, the keeping quality and presentation in the package. Class I Mangoes must be of good quality. They must be characteristic of the variety. Mangoes may have following slight defects, provided these do not affect the general appearance of the produce, the quality, the keeping quality and presentation in the package. Defects: slight defects in shape; slight skin defects due to rubbing or sunburn, suberized stains due to resin exudation (elongated trails included) and healed bruises not exceeding 2,3,4,5 sq. cm. for size groups A, B, C, D, respectively. Class II This grade includes mangoes which do not qualify for inclusion in the higher grades, but satisfy the minimum requirements. Mangoes may have following defects, provided they retain their essential characteristics as regards the quality, keeping quality and presentation.Defects: slight defects in shape, slight skin defects due to rubbing or sunburn, suberized stains due to resin exudation (elongated trails included) and healed bruises not exceeding 4,5,6,7 sq. cm. for size groups A, B, C, D, respectively. Foot note: In Class I and Class II, scattered suberized rusty lenticels, as well as yellowing of green varieties due to exposure to direct sunlight, not exceeding 40% of the surface and not showing any signs of necrosis are allowed. Packaging requirement for mango In today’s competitive world, packaging plays a crucial role in creating value added consumer friendly, self-selling packs. Each individual fruit of mango will be enclosed in a clean, white, soft, expandable and netted type polystyrene sleeve to prevent bruising before packing in a box. The mangoes must be packed in insect-proof boxes. If ventilated boxes are used, all the ventilator openings of the box should be covered with insect-proof screen and all the sides of box should be sealed with adhesive tape to prevent any entry of pests. The materials used inside the package must be new, clean, and of a quality such as to avoid causing any external or internal damage to the produce. The use of materials, particularly of paper or stamps bearing trade specifications is allowed, provided the printing or labeling has been done with non-toxic ink or glue. Mangoes shall be packed in each container in compliance with the Recommended International Code of Practice for Packaging and Transport of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (CAC/RCP 44-1995, Amd. 1-2004). The package boxes dimensions of 390X260X115 mm for Banganpalli.

7 Table 7. Export specification for Alphanso and Kesar mango (Source, Maharashtra State Ag. Marketing Board) Variety Middle East Netherlands/ U.K. Japan USA Germany

Alphanso Wt: 200-250gm Wt: 250-300gm Wt: 250-300gm Wt: 250-300gm Wt: 250-300gm Kesar Wt: 200-250gm Wt: 225-250gm Wt: 225-250gm Wt: 250-300gm Wt: 250-300gm Packing 1Doz/2.5 kg 1Doz/2.5 kg 1Doz/2.5 kg 1Doz/3.5 kg 1Doz/3.5 kg Storage 13°C 13°C 13°C 13°C 13°C (Temp.) Export By Sea By Air By Air By Air By Air

Conclusion Indian mango has tremendous potential for production and domestic and overseas trade. Diversity in mango fruit in terms of shape, size and colour and a wide variety of flavour, aroma and taste gives additional advantage to this fruit. In last few decades mango produce quality maintenance meeting export specifications has been witnessed. In addition, identification of Agri Export Zones for mango and establishment of irradiation facilities at ports have strengthen the overseas trade of mangoes from the country. The facilities like VHT and HWT has been standardised and commercially practiced in the country. Efforts are also under way to capture the European markets during Christmas festival by commercialisation of off-season mango genotypes from Andaman & Nicobar Islands and coastal areas like Kanyakumari and Kerala etc.

8 Regulation of Flowering for Higher Production in Mango

V.K. Singh

ICAR-Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture, Rehmankhera, PO Kakori, Lucknow - 226101, Uttar Pradesh E-mail: [email protected]

Introduction Flowering is the most important phenological event in the phyotogerontology, as it is the key factor contributing to fruit production and profitability to the orchardists. Under favourable growth conditions, the timing and intensity of flowering greatly determine the quantum of production. However, several times there are very contrasting florigenic events where despite prolific flowering, fruit set remains low leading to low yields. Many important details about flowering though are now becoming clearer, especially in annual / herbaceous plants at the physiological, biochemical and molecular levels, yet this complex physiological phenomenon is less understood in perennial fruit crop system in general and mango in particular, thus evading satisfactory management prescriptions. Flowering across species generally is promoted by fluxes of photoperiod, temperature, water relations or autonomous factors, or their combination thereof suggesting that flowering is triggered environmentally and genetically. Thus, to gain further insights into environmental adaptation, it is important to understand the regulation of seasonal flowering dynamics in mango. The mango cultivated under tropical and subtropical conditions exhibiting different flowering characteristics. When it grown in the subtropics (latitude 23°–30°) where substantial seasonal temperature dynamics occur, show floral induction from exposure to night temperatures of 10–15°C, thus the flowering response of mangoes growing in subtropical latitudes, cool temperature is the dominant induction factor, which provides stress essentially required for fruit bud differentiation. The effects of temperature and water relations on determining vegetative and reproductive phenologies in mango have been reasonably well addressed by several researchers. Many cultivars flower erratically in the low-latitude tropics, providing continuously warm temperatures with high soil and atmospheric moisture. Under such conditions, the age of potential stems is the dominant inductive factor and occasional cool night temperatures in the upper latitude tropics have a positive moderating effect (Davenport et al., 2007). In the tropics, however, the age of the

9 last leaf was considered as a dominant factor regulating flowering (Davenport, 2011). The present note attempts to briefly highlight the physiology of flowering in mango and their management for higher production ensuring sustainability and profitability of mango growing.

Physiology of mango flowering Erratic and irregular flowering is one of the most serious problems of mango as it renders its cultivation less remunerative and is one of the main hurdles in maximizing the mango production. There are number of mango varieties, out of which only few happened to be of commercial importance. Different regions of the country, have their own commercial varieties because a particular variety is not expected to perform equally well under different sets of climatic factors prevailing in different agro-climatic regions of the country. Most of the commercial varieties are irregular bearers; however, their cultivation plays a vital role in the economy of the respective regions and brought prosperity among farmers. Due to irregular flowering habit, the productivity of mango remained below the potential level. Physiological diversities among the regular and irregular groups of mango were studied. Mesophyll cells in the leaves of regular bearer variety were found more uniform and highly efficient in CO2 utilization as compared to biennial bearers (Singh, 2002). Development of assimilatory power in terms of photosynthesis and

CO2 compensation point was also worked out, regular bearer was found to develop assimilatory power much earlier than the biennial ones. Excessive vegetative growth, high gibberellin synthesis, imbalanced C/N ratio at the time of flower bud genesis, heavy fruiting in one year causing deficiency in nutrition for another year fruiting are the main reasons for erratic bearing. Thus, for increasing the reproductive growth of the tree there is need to retard vegetative growth, to reduce gibberellin biosynthesis, to provide sufficient nutrition and to bring the C/N ratio to a level at which flower bud differentiation occurs. Biochemical changes in respect of starch, protein, nucleic acids and ascorbic acid were also studied in relation to the irregular flowering in mango. The starch content of the leaf tissue was higher at flowering and fruiting stage than at quiescent stage, while protein content at this stage was greater than flowering and fruiting stages. The starch content serves as a source of reservoir of energy for these crucial stages (Sen et al., 1972). The updated account for mango flowering physiology has recently been published (Remirez and Davenport, 2010). Phytohormone play a decisive role in floral induction and bud development, therefore changes in IAA, ABA, cytokinin-ZR, DHZR and gibberellins contents of leaves and buds play the main role in flowering. Their concentration varied at different phenological stages in different variety (Singh et al., 2014). The major gibberellins identified in the leaves and buds were recorded high content of GA3,

GA4, GA5, GA7 and GA9. GA3 in buds and leaves was high during off-season in the mango. In contrast, GA4, GA5 and GA7 were recorded high during main season in

10 the trees grown GA9 was invariably high in the buds and leaves of during the off- season flowering. Several flowering related genes have been clones from grapevine (Carmona et al., 2002), kiwifruit (Walton et al., 2001) and apple (Kotoda et al., 2002). Esumi et al. (2005) isolated LEAFY (LFY) and TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL 1) homologues genes from six fruit tree species of the sub-family Rosaceae. They have been found to promote flower initiation and development in poplar and citrus also. Similar mechanism may be found active in mango but with greatly altered dynamics of gene expression, that should be worked out. The genes involved in the pathway that lead to the transition from vegetative to reproductive development in citrus species was characterized (Dornels et al., 2007), which may be exploited in mango also. However, Davenport (2010) documented about the networks of gene expression involved in triggering flowering in mango.

Management of mango flowering Mango is one of the most amenable of the tropical fruit trees to floral manipulation. Producers are most interested in reliable out of season flowering in order to provide fruit for markets at times of maximum value. Thus, flowering is an important issue for this region, both for dependable flowering and for manipulation of the timing of flowering to take advantage of market opportunities. Mango producers are mostly interested in managing the flowering time of orchards in order to obtain early harvest to fetch more fruits. Synchronization of the vegetative growth of tree canopies in an orchard is a necessary first step in the flowering management programme. Synchronous growth throughout in each tree allows all of the stems in the canopy to be in the same physiological stage of maturity so that management can be most efficiently achieved uniformly through a section of orchard. Advancing “Alphonso” mango harvest season through manipulation in time of soil application of paclobutrazol (PBZ) [soil application on 15th of May, June] was demonstrated in farmers field. Significant earliness in flowering (85.4 day) and advancement in harvesting (82 day) is achieved with the application of PBZ on 15th May. PBZ application on 15th June resulted early flowering (56 day) and harvesting (69 days) than the control (Burondkar et al., 2014). The findings of study indicate huge potential for realizing about 5-6 times higher returns from “Alphonso” produced in February-March as compared to May harvest. However, in subtropical climate the flowering is not an important issue for commercially produced mango unless there is concern for reduced productivity through reduced flowering. Early induction of flowering was possible but getting significant earlier produce was not amenable due to having cold front during the fruit development. Two months early induction of flowering was achieved in Amrapali and Dashehari through paclobutrazol (unpublished personal report). In past for overcoming biennial bearing, deblossoming of fruit was recommended to reduce the crops load in the ‘on’ year such that it is balanced in the ‘off’ year. But

11 deblossoming is very cumbersome and was not feasible therefore; it was not adopted by farmers. However, this problem has been tackled with the soil application of paclobutrazol. The dose, time and method of application of paclobutrazol (PP333) for the control of alternate bearing have been developed (Singh and Singh, 2003; Singh and Bhattacherjee, 2005). Regular use of paclobutrazol may have detrimental effects on longevity of crop; therefore, its integration through inorganic/organic nutrition seems to be essential for getting sustainable production of mango. Small amount of paclobutrazol residue remains in the soil for 2-3 years, therefore, varietals response to paclobutrazol persistence in relation to flowering and fruiting is also need to be studied. There is not much problem of biennial bearing in mango in other countries as they are cultivating regular bearing varieties of mango. In Philippines, the commercial cultivar Carabao is biennial type and the application of KNO3 @ 10 to 40 g / litre was reported to be effective to induced flowering in ‘off’ year (Bondad et al., 1979;

Protacio, 2000)). However, later on it was observed that KNO3, calcium nitrate and magnesium nitrate failed to induce more flowering in Indian cultivar Dashehari. Valmayer (1972) found that smudging in mango orchard induce ‘off’ season flowering and fruiting in Philippines. Hwang et al. (2004) reported that chemical pruning of auxiliary panicle by HCN (1.0%) induced flowering in mango. It has been a common practice for ‘off’ season production and as a remedy for poor fruit setting in mango in Taiwan. Soil moisture stress and high vapour pressure deficit of the atmosphere during the early part of dry season induce a check in growth and the low night temperature (<20-15°C) enhances floral induction (Scholefield et al., 1986). Flowering in mango is associated with reduced vegetative growth often induced by moisture stress. It was found that plant stress induced by low temperature or drought and branch / trunk girdling check vegetative growth and promote flowering in mango trees. Stem girdling and root pruning, which induce cessation of root and shoot growth and limit gas exchange capacity in leaves, are known to stimulate flowering. Anti-auxins (Tri-iodo benzoic acid, Malic hydrazide), growth retardant (Alar, Cycocel, Cultar) and ethephon are reported to promote flowering (Pandey, 1989). Pal and Chadha (1982) found good results by 500 ppm ethephon and 250 and 500 ppm cycloheximide treatment for deblossming in Dashehari and Mallika cultivar for subsequent year’s of flowering. Kulkarni (1988), Murti and Upreti (2000) reported that paclobutrazol is an important triazole and its soil drenching treatment prior to flower bud differentiation suppressed the vegetative growth and enhance flowering. Murti and Upreti (2005) further suggested that soil drenching treatment of PBZ at 1.71 mM induced growth retardation in mango seedlings and is associated with increased level of ABA and cytokinins together with higher leaf water potential (Yw) and phenols in leaves. PBZ seems to alter the source-sink relationship in mango to support fruit growth with lesser number of leaves, which could be a reason for enhanced fruit yield even with suppressed vegetative growth (Reddy, 2002). Regularity in bearing of mango

12 through paclobutrazol and residual effect in different varieties was worked (Bhattacherjee and Singh, 2015). Response of paclobutrazol on nutritional and microbiological properties of mango orchard soil has been established and no nutritional effect on the soil health was recorded when it is used as optimal dose (Singh et al., 2005). Biennial bearing in mango can be overcome by cultivating the regular bearing varieties as developed by different organization.

Present gap Mango flowering involves hormonal regulation of shoot initiation and induction events resulting in reproductive shoot formation for bearing. A balance ratio of endogenously regulated phytohormones, thought to be auxin from leaves and cytokinins from roots, and critical level of specific gibberellin from potential shoot which govern the initiation of flowering in mango has not been properly worked out. The induction of reproductive or vegetative shoots may be governed by the ratio of day and night temperature, the detail information on these aspects in relation to irregular flowering and bearing of mango is lacking. Besides this, ratio of temperature regulated florigenic promoter to vegetative promotor at the time of shoot initiation has not been worked out. Molecular mechanism controlling flowering/bearing in mango is totally lacking. Management of regular bearing through tip pruning and use of triazole coupled with management of the stem age to induce the flowering for off-year fruiting is needs to be addressed. Conclusion Flowering involves hormonal regulation of shoot initiation and induction events resulting in reproductive shoot formation especially in mango presumably under the influence of genes. A balance and interpolation of endogenously regulated phyto- hormones, thought to be auxins from leaves and cytokinins from roots, appears to govern the initiation cycle independently from inductive influences. Induction of reproductive or vegetative shoots is thought to be governed by the ratio of a temperature-regulated florigenic promoter and an age regulated vegetative promoter at the time of shoot initiation. Identified gene orthologs of flowering regulation would pave the way for better understanding of the mechanism operating in perennial fruit crops system. Management of off-season flowering in mango trees is being accomplished in the tropics by successfully synchronizing shoot initiation through tip pruning and use of paclobutrazol and nitrate sprays coupled with management of the stem age to induce flowering such that it can be accomplished during any desired week of the year. The recent advancements in molecular physiology, genomics, and proteomics technologies could answer the questions why some fruit trees flower regularly while some others do not.

Future Prospects 1. Identification of critical physical, chemical and biological signals containing information for the onset of flowering in ‘On’ and ‘Off’ year.

13 2. The ratio of florigenic promoter (FP) to vegetative promoter (VP) induced generative shoots should be identify for induction of flowering in mango and threshold level of specific phytohormones should be worked out. 3. Flowering associated physiological changes in roots should studied during ‘On’ and ‘Off’ year of fruiting as root is important sink of metabolites. 4. Understanding the molecular mechanism controlling flowering and irregular bearing pattern in mango. 5. Anthropagenic management and manipulation of out-of-season flowering by pruning, irrigation, application of N-substances / or fertilizers and triazole is an important area to be worked out in order to provide fruit in markets at times of maximum value.

References Singh, V.K., Saxena, Pooja, Rajan, S., Upreti, K.K. and Ravishankar, H. (2014). Changes in the levels of endogenous phytohormones associated with flowering in mango (Mangifera indica L.) cultivars. National Seminar-cum-Workshop on “Physiology of Flowering in Perennial Fruit Crops” held at Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture, Rehmankhera, Lucknow, May 24-26, 2014, pp. 29. Bhattacherjee, A.K. and Singh, V.K. (2015). Uptake of soil applied paclobutrazol in mango cv. Dashehari and its persistence in soil, leaves and fruits. Indian J. Plant Physiol. 20: 39-42. Singh, V.K. and Bhattacherjee, A.K. (2005). Genotypic response of mango to persistent of paclobutrazol

(PP333) in soil. Scientia Hort., 106: 53-59. Davenport, T.N. 2011. Mango reproductive physiology, challenges and opportunities. In: Souvenir Global Conference on Mango. ISHS and SDSH, Lucknow, pp. 58-71. Bondad, N.D. and Apostol, C.J. (1979). Induction of flowering and fruiting in immature mango shoots

with KNO3. Curr. Sci. 48: 591-93. Singh, V.K. and Singh, A. (2003). Effect of paclobutrazol on regularity of bearing in mango (Mangifera indica L.). Physiol. Mol. Biol. Plants, 9(2): 239-248. Singh, V.K., Garg, Neelima and Bhriguvanshi, S.R. (2005). Effect of paclobutrazol dose on nutritional and microbiological properties of mango (Mangifera indica L.) orchard soils. Indian J. Agril. Sciences, 75(11): 738-739.

14 Success of Amrapali and Mallika Mango in India

S.K. Singh, Manish Srivastav and Jai Prakash

Division of Fruits and Horticultural Technology ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi - 110 012 E-mail: [email protected]

Mango breeding at Indian Agricultural Research Institute began in the 1950s when scientists crossed different mango varieties to have the most desirous trait, i.e. regular bearing and good fruit quality. In 1971, a hybrid of Neelam and Dushehari was released as Dushehari. Later in 1979, Amrapali (Dushehari x Neelam) was released for commercial cultivation. These two hybrids were bred by the team of breeders, namely, Dr R.N. Singh, Dr D.K. Sharma and Dr P.K. Majumder. Over three decades, these two varieties gradually spread to different research institutions and also entered in AICRP trials. Several State Govt. nurseries also collected the mother plants and initiated mass multiplication programmes. It was during 2004 that the two varieties got the national release during the AICRP (STF) Workshop held at the TNAU’s Periakulam Station. The impetus was received with the launch of National Horticulture Mission in 2005, with a budget allocation of Rs 8,000 crores. During, 2001-02, mango in India covered an area over 15 million hectares, yielding 10 million tonnes of the fruit. A decade later, in 2012-13, the area under mango plantation increased to over 25 million hectares and production touched record 17 million tonnes. The revolution in mango has come through the efforts of agricultural scientists, nurserymen, extension workers, NGOs, private companies etc. who taught farmers the modern cultivation techniques including close planting, remunerative intercropping, rejuvenation of ‘senile’ plantations through grafting, canopy management, drip/fertigation, bio-control of pests and diseases, safe ripening, organised retail, export promotion etc. Amrapali is dwarf, regular bearer and responds very well to pruning thus goes well under high density planting. About 1,600 plants can be accommodated in one hectare area, while Mallika in semi-vigorous can be planted at 6-8 m spacing. Amrapali is highly precocious and commercial harvest can be taken after three years of planting. The fruits are sweet, fibreless, with an attractive orange red pulp

15 colour. The fruits of Mallika are big and have good pulp content 72%. The pup is firm and has excellent sugar : acid blend. It is quite suitable for overseas markets. Besides it has excellent processing traits. Amrapali pulp has the highest beta- carotenoids contents and can be used for blending pulp of white pulp coloured varieties. Both the varieties are late in ripening thus extend the mango season for almost two extra months. The major states growing commercially these two varities are Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttrakhand etc. Many non-traditional areas like Odisha, Tripura, Gujarat and Uttrakhand have gone for these varieties in a big way. Several industrial houses have taken these varieties for contract farming. Reliance, Essar Group, Jain Irrigation, NGOs, farmers’ cooperatives etc. have taken keen interest in planting these varieties along with other popular varieties of the region. It is interesting to note that now Amrapali is being commercially grown in several neighbouring countries. At present, it is gaining areas in Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Bangladesh has sent its first consignment of Amrapali mangoes to United Kingdom in 2015. Officially, these varieties have also reached USA, Brazil, Egypt, South Africa, Australia etc. where they are being cultivated or used as parent for mango improvement. Some of the major mango growing belts in different states of India are as given hereunder;

State Growing belts Chhattisgarh Jabalpur, Raipur, Bastar Gujarat Bhavnagar, Surat, Valsad, Junagarh, Mehsana, Khera Jammu & Kashmir Jammu, Kathwa, Udhampur Jharkhand Ranchi, Sindega, Gumla, Hazaribagh, Dumka, Sahibganj, Godda. Karnataka Kolar, Bangalore, Tumkur, Kagu Madhya Pradesh Rewa, Satna, Durg, Bilaspur, Bastar, Ramnandgaon, Rajgari, Jabalpur, Katni, Balaghat Odisha Sonepur, Bolangir, Gajapati, Koraput, Rayagada, Gunpur, Malkanpuri, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Puri Uttrakhand Almora, Nainital, Dehradun, Bageshwar, UdhamSingh Nagar, Haridwar Uttar Pradesh Saharanpur, Bulandshahar, Lucknow, Faizabad, Varanasi West Bengal Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, Purulia, Birbhum

The spread and the success stories related to these two varieties in different states of the country are mentioned below; Odisha Annually, Odisha produces nearly 8 lakh tonne mango, of which 40% are high quality varieties such as Amrapali, Dushehari, Mallika, Keshari and Langra, and several local and indigenous varieties. Majority of the fruits are produced in

16 Dhenkanal, Angul, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Boudh. Both Mallika and Amrapali are most sought after mangoes outside the state and the State Horticulture Department is eyeing export promotion in a big way. Fruit lovers in New Delhi, Kolkata, Allahabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro etc. are receiving large consignments from Odisha. Mango areas is fast coming up in large tracts of tribal areas. The major push is from schemes such as the National Horticulture Mission (NHM) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). The existing two lakh hectares under mango cultivation in Odisha, is expected to increase upto 13,00,000 ha, thus creating rural jobs. Odisha during 2013 started sending mangoes to neighbouring country, Bangladesh. The state is also exporting the fruits to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. These two varieties have transformed the traditional rice-producing zone to horticulture intensive economy. It all started in 1981, when Dr N.R. Panigrahi, the then Director of Horticulture, Odisha brought four Amrapali mango plants from IARI, New Delhi, which were then planted at Angul Progeny Orchards. These four plants gave good quality fruits, around one quintal per plant every year. Seeing the success of Amrapali mango, later in 1985 several hundred plants were prepared from these four plants and were supplied to different progeny orchards of Odisha for multiplication. In 1992, the variety was selected under compact area scheme adopted by state. According to the scheme, a minimum of 50 acres of mango plants to be grown at one patch in compact area in any area of the state. This scheme was put into practice in July 1992 at Dhenkanal. Dr S.N. Behera offered Amrapali fruits to the then Agriculture Production Commissioner during his visit to Dhenkanal district and permitted Dr Behera to procure the Amrapali plants from IARI, New Delhi and other sources in a large quantity for compact area plantation programme. Orchards were planted on small hillocks and in plain barren lands. Soon these unproductive areas became lush green with Amrapali trees and start producing good quality of mangoes and a source of income to the local tribal population and marginal farmers. The success of Amrapali in hilly and unproductive tracts in Odisha ensured livelihood security to the tribal families. Initially, Amrapali was spread in some areas of the state such as Keonjhar, Dhenkenal, Angul and Kashipur Block of Raigada. The success in such areas attracted the farmers in adjoining districts and states. Over the years, Amrapali mango became a hit because of its qualities and also government promoted Amrapali at a large scale and in a big way. With the joint and commendable efforts of IARI, New Delhi, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, State Horticulture Department, Amrapali mango earned recognition in Odisha and today emerged as commercial mango of the state.

17 High graft success with Amrapali resulted in production of large number of plants in the state. Therefore, there was no shortage of planting material which was essentially needed for National Horticulture Mission of the State under area expansion programme. Over 65,53,141 plants were produced in just five years (2006- 07 to 2010-11) by State Govt. Nurseries and private nurseries in Odisha. Today, Amrapali alone occupies over 73,000 hectares of about 2 lakhs hectare area under mango cultivation in Odisha. The Amrapali mango from the Odisha is not only leading variety for local markets but also supplied to metropolitan cities like, Delhi, Kolkata, Bokaro, Ranchi and Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) etc. During 2015, the Amrapali fruit were also sent to Bnagladesh through Kokata by train.

Tripura Agro-climatic condition and hill slope in South Tripura district is very much congenial for successful growing of mango variety Amrapali. It is a dwarf variety with regular and late bearing habit. Amrapali was introduced in Tripura during 1990s, but its cultivation gained momentum with production large quantities of saplings involving private nurseries. This intervention under Horticulture Mission for North East & Himalayan States leads to huge area expansion under this variety. The state also took advantage other scheme like MGNREGA for major expansion under the supervision of Department of Horticulture & Soil Conservation Directorate, Tripura. The state has about 1.78 lakhs hectare under Amrapali mango, besides several private nurseries were also integrated for employment generation through production of planting material under Hi-tech nurseries. Demand of mango saplings in the district is more than 1 lakh per year and production of seedlings and grafted mango are not meeting the demand. KVK of South Tripura trained rural youth for production of quality planting materials. Among the trainees three school drop outs namely, Shri Priyabrata Datta and Shri Uttam Deb Barma from Takmacherra village and Shri Manoranjan Deb Barma from Manu village of Bokafa Block of South Tripura established mango nurseries at their homestead gardens with an initial investment of Rs 5,000 and presently they are earning about Rs 30,000 to 90,000 per year. More than 50 youths have established mango nurseries around the KVK and are producing about 50,000-1,00,000 plants per year. This intervention has created assured employment and raising social status of the rural youth farmers and farm women in the community. West Bengal Amrapali variety has become more adapted to different districts of West Bengal. In Malda, it has become as popular similar to Alphonso in Maharashtra. Over 50,000 tress have been planted in the district during last six years under MNREGA and trees are bearing revenues for the growers every year after third year

18 of planting. Besides the ‘Amrapali’, ‘Mallika,’ has also adapted very well in Bankura, where the red lateritic soil gives mangoes their distinct taste. Being late fetches premium price in the metros and even smaller towns. This variety has changed the fortune for several small holder farmers. Nari Vikas Sangh, a local organization started a project to encourage small farmers to plant mangoes in 2006. Within three years, Mandi’s land in Gobindosol hamlet near Jhilimili was lush with mango and cashew trees, with okra and pumpkin planted in between. State nurseries started growing mango saplings in large numbers and gave them out to local farmers. It is occupying good area in Malda, Murshidabad, Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum etc.

Jharkhand A voluntary organization, PRADAN, took the initiative to introduce mango plantations in several districts. In Gumla, Shri Rajiv Ranjan, an agriculture graduate, brought large number of Amrapali and Mallika saplings from Kolkata in 2006 and got them planted by over 160 tribal families. In all families only one-acre plot was established along with guidance for installation of drip irrigation, inter row planting of vegetables and scientific care of trees. Presently, the mango-cum-vegetable farms are making to the tune of Rs 75,000 annually. This successful model has been replicated in several districts like Ranchi, Simdega, Gumla, Hazaribagh, Dumka, Sahibganj and Godda.

Karnataka The Karnataka State Mango Development and Market Corporation (KSMDMC) is promoting mango cultivation and organising direct market linkage programmes for growers in the state as a result the area under mango has gone up over 1,60,000 ha. The major mango growing districts are Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Dharwad, Belgaum, Ramanagar, Haveri, Tumkur, North Karnar and Mysore. Kolar and Chikkaballapur together contribute 50% of the production. Alphonso, Mallika, Raspuri, Banganpalli, Sendhura, Totapuri are major varieties grown in the state. Good quality Mallika mango has gained a place of pride in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai markets. Being a late season mango and it is usually found in the markets around the last weeks of June. It is a very popular choice for making fruit juices and pulps. Uttar Pradesh The two varieties are grown commercially in different districts though in a limited area in Lucknow, Unnao, Hardoi, Sitapur and Barabanki, Saharanpur, Muzzfarnagar, Bijnaur, Meerut, Bhagpat and Bulandshahar. Being late in ripening they fetches good price to the growers.

19 Bihar Amrapali mango has been increasing acreage in districts of Bhagalpur, Patna, Nalanda, Viashali, Samatipur and Muzaffarpur. Amrapali has been adopted under high density planting. The fruits compete with the produce from West Bengal and Jharkhand.

Gujarat Mallika – has become very popular and forming a considerable share in area expansion under mango. Unlike Kesar or Alphonso, Mallika is preferred owing to regularity in bearing, longer shelf-life and the big fruits, comparatively disease resistant as compared to other varieties. CHES, Vejalpur, Godhra did the long term performance evaluation and later promoted it in a big way. Besides bearing bigger sized fruits, it was drought tolerant and had uniform ripening. Amrapali has also come very well in foot hills of Girnar Hills, Jamnagar, Junagarh, Navsari etc.

Uttrakhand The State Govt. is taking huge interest in nursery and has Hi-tech nurseries at staking Ramnagar, Dehradun and Pauri Garhwal. This intervention has led to increase in area expansion under Amrapali and Mallika.

Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh The two mango varieties are being adopted in Rewa, Betul, Chhindwara, Panchmarhi region of Hoshangabad, etc. In Chhattisgarh they occupy good area in Raipur, Dhamtari etc.

Himachal Pradesh The two mango varieties are now being grown in lower hills, namely, Una, Kangra, Hamirpur etc. under high density. The different states in which the two hybrids have penetrated are as follows; Mallika: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Tripura, Jammu & Kashmir. Amrapali: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Nagaland, Assam, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir. (Source: National Horticultural Board, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI)

Acknowledgements Authors are thankful to Managing Director, National Horticulture Board, GoI, Directors of State Horticulture Deptt., NDTV News, The Times of India, The Telegraph, The Indian Express, and APEDA for information.

20 Management of Insect Pests in Mango

D.B. Ahuja

ICAR-National Research Centre for Integrated Pest Management LBS Building IARI, Pusa Campus, New Delhi - 110 012

Mango can be grown in vast range of climatic conditions but mainly cultivated in states of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Jharkhand, Kerala, and West Bengal. Gross area under its cultivation is 2.5 m ha with a production of 18.45 MMT and a productivity of 7.38 mt/ha. It is known to be infested by about 492 species of insect pests. Out of this, about 400 species have been recorded from Asia. A dozen among them are important that causes substantial qualitative and qualitative losses. Information about their incidence, life-cycle, nature of damage and their, management is given in brief as follows. Leaf hoppers Fifteen species of hoppers have been reported on mango; however, only 3 species viz., Amritodus atkinsoni, Idioscopus clypealis and Idioscopus niveosparsus are serious pests. The mango leaf hoppers are small wedge shaped insects and measure 3.4-5.1 mm in length and are sap suckers from the plants. Amritodus atkinsoni is comparatively bigger and darker with two black spots on the scutellum, while I. clypealis is smallest and lighter in colour with also two spots on the scutellum but has darker spots on vertex. Idioscopus niveoparsus is dark with wavy lines on wings and three spots on scutellum. Damage due to hoppers can occur from the new shoot formation stage but mainly occurs at the flowering stage of the tree growth, when it multiplies in large number and is devastating. However its damage persists to fruiting stage of the trees as well. The damage is caused by both adult hoppers and their nymphs who suck the sap of new shoots, buds and flowers resulting in drying of the entire inflorescence and even small fruits. Nymphs cause more damage than the adults. They also secrete a large amount of honey dew, while sucking sap on which sooty mould develops that interferes with the respiration/ photosynthesis process of leaves. The heavy infestation of insect usually occurs periodically. Its attack starts from end of December and continues till the end of June. The old trees are more intensively damaged than the newly planted ones. Spiders such as Araneus sinhagadensis, Cyrtophora cicatrosa, coccinellid beetles, namely, Coccinella septumpunctata and Cheilomenes sexmaculata are most common predators on the nymphs of leaf hopper. Besides these, reduviid, Endochus inornatus has been

21 observed predating upon nymphs of Idioscopus niveosparsus. Entomopathogenic fungi, viz., Verticillium lecanii and Beauveria bassiana are also effective in areas of high humidity. Management • Avoid dense planting, maintain clean orchards, prune overlapping branches and infested shoots. Leave a central opening on the top of the tree for better penetration of the sunlight • Neem based sprays can be utilized at initial stage of hopper population (Azadirachtin 3000 ppm @ 8-10 ml/l water). • Protecting and encouraging biocontrol agents like predators, Coccinella septumpunctata and Cheilomenes sexmaculata, Chrysopa lacciperda, egg parasite, Polynema spp., Gonatocerus sp. Tetrastichus sp. and fungus, Verticillium lecanii. • Application of bio-agents, Verticillium lecanii or Beauveria bassiana @ 108 cfu / ml on tree trunk once during off-season and twice at 7-day interval during flowering season. • Need based application depending on pest intensity, first spray before flowering with 0.007% cypermethrin , second at panicle initiation stage with 0.07% quinalphos or 0.1% carbaryl, subsequent sprays with imidacloprid (0.0053%), thiomithaxam (0.005%) or dimethoate (0.03%). Mealy bugs Three species of mealy bugs namely Drosicha mangiferae, D. stebbingi and Rastrococcus iceryoides are known to attack mango trees. The damage is caused by the nymphs of both the sexes and female adult suck the sap from the twigs, fruits and flowers. As a result, flowers dry up and only few fruits are set. The fruit bearing twigs become so weak that even with the slightest jerk, either by a bird or wind, the fruits may fall down. They secrete honey dew which attracts fungus due to which black spots may be seen on twigs and shoots. The attack is much more serious during the spring when the twigs or shoots are richly supplied with cell sap. After hatching from eggs in the soil, first instar nymphs (crawlers) migrate to adjoining mango trees during month of November-December. Fertilized female mealy bugs migrate to soil during April-May. The population peak is observed during March-April on inflorescence. These migration periods are critical from management point of view. Several species of coccinellids, spiders, mites and parasitoids are known to be natural enemies of mealy bugs. Among the pathogens, the entomogenous fungus Metarhizium anisoplae (108 spores/ml) at 5 g/l as soil application can give effective management. Besides coccinellids and spiders can also play an important role in regulation of the pest density. Management • Flooding of orchards during October and applying Metarhizium anisopliae @ 1x 108 cfu/ml in soil around the tree trunk in 1 m diameter and also on the trunk up to the height of 1 metre.

22 • Pruning of infected and dried branches, 10 cm below the dried portion and pasting of copper oxychloride. • Early instar nymphs of the mealy bug can be managed by spraying of 0.05 % carbaryl or Buprofezin 25 SC @ 1.25 ml/l from January to March. • Fastening of alkathene sheets of 70-100 (micron thick), 25 cm wide around the base of tree in December.

Stone weevils Three species namely Sternochetus mangiferae, S. gravis and S. frigidus have been reported as pests of mango. S. mangiferae is most widely distributed. Adult female weevils deposit eggs singly in the epicarp of the fruits at marble stage of the crop. The grubs after hatching from eggs enter the nut or stone. Initially damage is caused by feeding on the outer coat of the stone in a zig-zag fashion. Consequently, complete stone is destroyed leaving behind black frass. Damaged stones lose their viability. Fruits are also rendered unfit for processing or direct consumption due to mixing of excreta by the weevils while emerging from ripe fruits. Insect complete its life cycle in the fruit itself and the beetle are seen emerging from the ripened fruits. There is a single generation of the pest in a year. During non fruiting season the adult beetle remains hidden in the cracks and crevices and elsewhere in the orchards. Adults enter into diapauses until the next fruiting season.

Management • Collect and destroy all fallen infested fruits at weekly intervals till harvest. • Clean, using old brooms junctions of branches on the trunk prior to flowering (October). • Spray Acephate 75 SP @1.5 g/l when the fruits are of lime size (2.5 – 4 cm diameter). This spray should be followed by decamethrin 2.8 EC @ 1 ml/l after two to three weeks. • Destroy all left over seeds in the orchard after harvest and also in the processing industry • Sticky bands should be applied at upper end of tree trunk to prevent migration of weevils to branches for egg laying on fruits during February. • Keep the basin clean to prevent hiding places near the trees.

Fruit fly Eight species of fruit fly belonging to genera Bactrocera have been reported to be of economic importance. Among them B. dorsalis is the most predominant species besides B. dorsata and B. correcta reported from India. The adult fruit flies are slightly larger than housefly and measure about 14-15 mm across the wings. The fly is dark brown in general colour with hyaline wings and yellow legs. This is a polyphagus species, and nature and extent of damage depends upon type, size and condition

23 of fruit, availability of different hosts and population density. The most preferred host in Asia are mango, guava, litchi, citrus and papaya. Attacked fruits usually show signs of oviposition punctures and ripe fruits with high sugar content exude a sugary liquid. Maggots after hatching migrate to pulp and start feeding. Feeding of maggots on the pulp induce rotting of fruits and renders them unfit for human consumptions. Large number of parasitoids, mostly Opius spp. have been reported parasitizing B. dorsalis in India.

Management • Collection and disposal of fallen infested fruits, undersized fruits left on the tree should be picked and destroyed. If the trees are few in number, bagging the fruit with cloth or paper bags can be resorted. • Monitoring of the population of adult fruit fly through methyl eugenol traps @ 10 /ha. This also helps in mass trapping and if done on large scale on community basis, it can reduce the pest densities to appreciable level. Traps should be erected at a height of 4-6 feet above the ground level to any branch of the tree. A piece of thread should be passed through both the holes that may be tied firmly to the branch to prevent the swinging motion of the trap that may deter the entry of the fruit fly into the trap • Within 3-4 days of first catch in the traps, flies (both sexes) can also be managed by bait sprays comprising 100 g jaggery mixed in 1 l water with 2 ml DDVP. The solution is splashed on the tree trunk up to 2 feet height from the ground. Both sexes of the flies are attracted to the bait and their populations reduced. • Trees bearing fruits can also be sprayed with neem-based formulation (Mix 7-10 ml/l of azadirachtin formulation 3000 ppm with water).

Post-harvest disinfestations • After proper harvesting, select uniform sized undamaged fruits. Dip them in 5% solution of sodium chloride in cold water for one hour. This will kill 95% eggs in fruit epicarp and also remove the externally present pesticide residues. • Post-harvest immersion of mango fruits in hot water at 48 ± 1°C for 45-60 minutes gave 100% mortality of fruit fly eggs in the epicarp without affecting fruit.

Mango leaf webber (Orthaga sp.) Adult of Leaf webber lays up to 30 -50 yellowish green eggs singly near the leaf veins. Egg hatches with 3-4 days. Caterpillars are pale greenish that web the leaves and the terminal shoots into clusters. Larvae are very active and the moment it is touched, it takes swift jerk, and fall to the ground. A webbed clusters of leave harbour several larvae in the initial stage and feed by scrapping the leaf surface. Late instar larvae feed individually on whole leaf lamina leaving only midrib. As a consequence

24 of severe feeding, clusters of webbed leaves become dry and colour changes to brown. In case of severe infestation, photosynthetic activity is severely hampered. Affected trees, present sickly appearance and can be observed from a distance due to brown dry clustered leaves. Pupation occurs in leaf web. Adult emerges in 11- 14 days and measure about 25 mm in lengths. The adult moth is medium sized (31 mm wing span) and having grey body with brown yellowish white forewings having wavy lines on margins. Pest is active from June to December. It is one of the major pests responsible for low productivity, heavily infested trees gives a burnt look and severe infestation result in complete failure of flowering.

Management • Pruning of the infested shoots during June-July and burning them helps in cutting down the pest population. Inspect your mango orchards at least once in a month and search for webbed leaves/shoots. Systematically prune the infested clusters and destroy them along with larvae. • Collect and destroy the webbed infested fallen leaves on the ground under infested trees harbouring old larvae/ pupae. In case of old dense orchards, prune some side branches and open the tree canopy from centre to enable proper sunlight penetration. • Besides, conservation and augmentation of the natural enemies, release egg parasitoid Trichogramma chilonis or T. pretiosum. • Spray the affected trees after pruning with carbaryl (0.1%) or quinalphos (0.05%). Repeat spray at 10-12 days interval. • Raking the soil around the base of the trees in January and spraying insecticides like chloropyriphos @ 2 ml or acephate @1.5 g per litre of water immediately after disturbance of webs have shown to manage the pest.

Termites Termites are not the primary agents responsible for any damage to the mango trees. They generally find access to the trees when they are in weaker conditions due to some other causes. The principal food of the termites is fibrous material (cellulose). The worker termites feed on roots, shoots and trunks of the mango tree, which sometimes dries up if the roots are severely damaged. The earthen galleries form a safe passage, which go on destroying the bark and tissue within these galleries.

Management • For the management of termites, chlorpyriphos 20 EC or its dust formulation @ 25 kg/ ha in soil around infested plants can be used. • Orchards should be kept clean and free of all refuse or unwanted vegetation. All the dead and decaying wood, whether on the tree or on the ground should be regularly removed. Application of finely ground mahua cake followed by irrigation helps to drive away the termites.

25 Mango stem borer (Bactocera rufomaculate) The borer is the grub of a large, stout, long homed beetle. Full grown grubs are cream coloured, fleshy and apodous with dark brown head and measure about an inch. Beetle is dark with a fine gray vestiture and 2 kidney-shaped orange yellow spots on pronotum. The insect is found throughout India. It is a very serious pest of mango. It attacks the main trunk and branches resulting in their complete drying. External symptoms of attack are not always clear. It takes place either at ground level or at roots. The infested trunk or branches become hollow and break down very easily.

Management • The infested branches should be cut and the grubs inside be killed. • The adult beetle should be destroyed with kerosene-oil, petrol, crude oil, naphthalene or tar and water, which should be injected into these tunnels by means of a syringe and the holes are plugged by with cotton. • Block the tunnel hole by cleaning and inserting cotton wool soaked in emulsion of DDVP (0.05%) or carbon disulfide or chloroform or kerosene or petrol and pack them with mud. Carbaryl (0.1%) can be swabbed at bimonthly intervals

Thrips Three species of thrips (Caliothrips indicus, Rhipiphorothrips cruentatus and Scirtothrips dorsalis) have been reported to cause damage to mango foliage, flowers and fruits by laceration of the epidermis followed by sucking of the sap. Thrips are polyphagous in nature and are widely distributed around mango growing regions of India. As a result of feeding, silvery sheen bearing faecal matter on the affected leaves is developed. C. indicus and R. cruentatus feed on leaves and causes stippling on leaves. Larvae of C. indicus are tiny, wingless and pale. Adults are blackish brown with brown and white banded forewings. The eggs are oval and duration of egg instar is slightly longer, i.e. 7-10 days. Adults of R. cruentatus possess dark brown body, antennae, legs and fore wing pale with the veins and all basically being yellow. Nymphs and adults of S. dorsalis are yellow coloured with dark antennae and dark striping on the lower abdomen, small in size. It mainly feed on inflorescence and fruits, which show discoloured tissues that subsequently, turn brown. Damage period spreads from months of December to May.

Management • Monitor for thrip infestation by placing yellow sticky traps at regular intervals. • Neem based pesticides manage young nymphs effectively, inhibit growth of older nymphs and reduce the egg-laying ability of adults. • Promoting natural enemies that include predatory mites (e.g. Amblyseius spp.) anthocorid bugs or minute pirate bugs (Orius spp.), ground beetles, lacewings, hoverflies, and spiders.

26 • If the infestation is severe, spray with either Dimethoate 30 EC 2 ml/l water or spinosad 45 SC 3 ml/10 l water or thiamithoxam 25 WG at 3 G/10 l water when incidence of thrip is noticed. Midge Four species are known to damage mango and among them, Erosomyia indica, Dasineura amraramanjarae, Procystiphora mangiferae infest the floral parts and Procontarinia matteriana cause damage to leaves. Leaf gall midge (P. matteriana) produces wart-like galls on leaves that reduce photosynthetic activity of leaves leading to leaf drop and lowered fruit production. Female of leaf gall midge laid eggs into the tissue of young leaves leaving a small reddish spot. The leaf tissue under the red spot becomes swollen and soft. Within seven days, gall formation begins and reaches a maximum diameter of 3-4 mm. From the underside of leaf, adults usually emerge leaving the pupal skin sticking out from the emergence hole. Infested plant material and wind currents are responsible for its spread. Inflorescence midge (Eroisomyia indica) is yellow colour fly very small 1-2 mm in length. All species of inflorescence midge lay eggs inside tissue of flowering shoots, initiating the development of rachis inside transforming into galls. It turns black later on. Full grown pinkish larva comes out of the galls and drop on to the soil for pupation.

Management • Ploughing of orchard during month of October exposing pupae and exposing larvae to sun’s heat killing them. • Monitor of larval population and follow effective control measures based on population. Spray thiomithoxam (0.05%) or dimethoate (0.05%) at bud burst stage. Shoot gall psylla (Apsylla cistellata) It is a serious pest of mango reported from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Terrai regions of northern India. The pest is active from August onwards with the nymphs emerging from eggs during August-September and crawling to the adjacent buds to suck cell sap. Adult females lay eggs into the midrib of leaves in March-April. In response to egg-laying and as a result of feeding by the nymphs, the buds develop into hard conical green galls in leaf axis which are usually seen during September- October. Terminal shoots are most affected. Development of the green galls results in no flowering and fruit setting. Freshly hatched nymphs are yellowish in colour, but change in size and colour with time. Adults are 3-4 mm long with black head and thorax and light brown abdomen and membranous wings.

Management • Galls with nymphs should be collected and destroyed.

27 • Spray thiomithoxam 25 WG at 3 g /l water or quinolphos at 2 ml/l water at fortnightly interval starting from the middle of August. • New mango orchard in humid region need to be discouraged. Scale insect Mango is attacked by several species of scale insects but predominantly damaged by Chloropulvinaria polygonata and Aspidiotus destructor. The vigour of the plants is reduced as both nymphs and adult scales suck the sap of the leaves and other tender parts. During feeding, secretes honeydew which encourages the development of sooty mould on leaves and other tender parts of the mango tree. Flower spikes and fruits may also be infested. Severe scale infestation tends to adversely affect the growth and fruit bearing capacity of the tree. Eggs are laid on the leaves beneath the adult scale on leaves. After hatching from the eggs, the nymphs escape from the adult and loose their all appendages after the first moult.

Management • Prune heavily infested plant parts and destroy them immediately. • Spray Imidacloprid 17.8SL at 3 ml/10 l water twice or dimethoate (0.06%) at 21 day interval. • Elimination of ants may allow natural enemies to control the insect. Shoot borer (Chlumetia transversa) This pest can be found throughout India and is serious in nursery stage as well as also to young trees. Female moth lay eggs on tender leaves. Young larvae after hatching enter the midrib of leaves and then bore into young shoots through the growing points. It tunnel downwards resulting stunting of the seedlings with terminal bunchy appearance. In case of young trees also larvae bore the young shoot resulting drooping of leaves and wilting. Similar symptoms are noticed on panicles. Young caterpillars are yellowish orange with dark brown prothoracic shield. Full grown caterpillars (20-24 mm) are dark pink with dirty spots. Adult moths are stout greyish brown in colour with wings having wavy lines. Hind wings are light in colour.

Management • Attacked shoots should be clipped off and destroyed. Effective control of the pest can be attained by spraying carbaryl at 2 g/l water or quinalphos at 2 ml/l water at fortnightly intervals from the commencement of new flush. Two sprays at three weeks interval commencing from initiation of new flush of leaves may be required.

IPM focal points • Avoid dense planting, maintain clean orchards, prune overlapping and pest infected branches and infested shoots. Leave a central opening on the top of

28 the tree for better penetration of the sunlight and spraying or pasting of copper oxychloride. • Protecting and encouraging biocontrol agents like predators, Coccinella septumpunctata and Cheilomenes sexmaculata Chrysopa lacciperda, egg parasite, Polynema spp. Gonatocerus sp. Tetrastichus sp. and fungus, Verticillium lecanii. • Flooding of orchards during October and applying Metarhizium anisopliae @ 1 x 108 cfu/ml in soil around the tree trunk in 1 m diameter and also on the trunk up to the height of 1 meter. Verticillium lecanii or Beauveria bassiana @ 108 cfu /ml on the tree trunk once during off season and twice at 7 days interval during flowering season may also be applied. • Monitor for thrip infestation by placing yellow sticky traps at regular intervals. • Galls with nymphs of shoot gall psylla should be collected and destroyed. • Sticky bands should be applied at upper end of tree trunk to prevent migration of weevils to branches for egg laying on fruits during February in stone weevil infested area. Keep the basin clean to prevent hiding places near the trees. • Monitoring of the population of adult fruit fly through methyl eugenol traps @ 10 /ha starting from month of February. • Within 3-4 days of first catch in the traps, flies (both sexes) can also be managed by bait sprays comprising 100 g jaggery mixed in 1 l water with 2 ml DDVP. The solution is splashed on the tree trunk up to 2 feet height from the ground. Both sexes of the flies are attracted to the bait and their populations reduced. • Collection and disposal of fallen infested fruits, undersized fruits left on the tree. • After proper harvesting select uniform sized undamaged fruits. Dip them in 5% solution of sodium chloride in cold water for one hour. This will kill 95% eggs in fruit epicarp and also remove the externally present pesticide residues. • Post-harvest immersion of mango fruits in hot water at 48 ± 1°C for 45-60 minutes gave 100% mortality of fruit fly eggs in the epicarp without affecting fruit quality. • Raking the soil around the base of the trees in January and spraying of need based/ action threshold based chemical insecticides or bio-pesticides.

29 Mango Fruits Ripening Methods

Ram Asrey and V.R. Sagar

Division of Food Science & Postharvest Technology ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi - 110 012 E-mail: [email protected]

Introduction There is growing interest and concern among people regarding foods and their relationship to nutrition and diseases. Food security used to be the primary concern of countries and individuals alike. But, as agricultural research succeeds in alleviating the effect of chemicals and adverse poor quality, food security is generally not perceived as a problem any longer; instead concern over quantity has been replaced by reoccupation with quality. Simultaneously, people are more conscious about issues such as ecology, energy consumption, including pre-treatment, which facilitates or increases the attractiveness and ultimately presentation. 1. Traditional methods of ripening 1.1. Use of smoking chambers: This method is very common for ripening of banana and mango (Ram et al., 1979). Smokes are produced inside the chambers, which released ethylene, acetylene and other gases resulting trigger the ripening process and changes colour of surface. But this method is not suitable for commercial level and sometimes it may hazardous and produces uneven ripening and off flavored fruits due to evolution of toxic gases like CO, acetylene etc. 1.2. Use of paddy straw and banana leaves: This type of practices is mainly followed in rural areas where commercial facilities of ripening are not available. Mango and banana are common fruits which are ripened by this method. In this method cushioning material and wrapping material helps to conserve heat and produce ethylene by fruits. By the autocatalytic reaction of ethylene fruit ripen. But this method takes long time and uneven ripening. 1.3. Use of news paper and jute bags: Particular commodity wrapped with newspaper, jute bags or may be other paper based air tight material and place in a chamber. Existing ethylene evolution rate become faster due to heat at room temperature and produce get ripened. 2. Unhealthy practices of ripening 2.1. Use of calcium carbide: Calcium carbide is a organic chemical compound, which is used for ripening the fruits like mango, papaya, apple, avocado, peach, pear,

30 avocado, chiku and banana and widely used with name of “masala”. On the hydrolysis it produces acetylene which provides same effect as ethylene (Siddiqui and Dhua, 2010). It is used in steel industries and in automobiles for welding purpose. It is very cheap and easily available. Reaction of calcium carbide with water as under:

CaC2 + 2H2O → Ca(OH)2 + C2H2

2.2. Effects of CaC2 on fruit quality: Fruits ripened with CaC2 are overly soft and less tasty. They also have a shorter shelf-life. An artificially ripened fruit would present a yellow outer skin, but the tissue inside would not be ripe or itself remains green and raw. Thought mangoes ripen quickly (two days), they cannot be stored for more than two days. When CaC2 is used on raw fruit, the amount of the chemical needed to ripen the fruit has to be increased. This results in the fruit becoming even more tasteless and possibly toxic. It was observed that papaya fruit showed poor flavour when ripened with calcium carbide compared to ethrel and ethylene treatment (Jayawickrama et al., 2001). Calcium carbide has many health hazards and having carciogenic properties due to traces of arsenic and phosphorous hydride (Rahman et al.,2008; Naik,; Jayawickrama et al., 2001).

2.3. Ban on using CaC2: As per food safety and standard regulations, 2011, 2.3.5 of food safety and standard regulations (Prohibition and restriction on sales) Regulations 2011- Prohibition of use of carbide gas in ripening of fruits. No person shall sell and offer or expose for sale or have in his premises for the purpose of sell under any description, fruits which has artificially ripened by the use of acetylene gas, commonly known as carbide gas. Those convicted under this Act could face imprisonment for three years and a fine of Rs. 1,000. But there are hardly any cases where the traders or retailers have been booked for accelerating ripening by the use of harmful chemicals.

2.4. Health hazards: CaC2 contains traces of arsenic and phosphorus hydride. It causes several acute and chronic health effects. In humans, acetylene is not acutely toxic below its lower explosive limit of 2.5% and inhalation of 10% acetylene for 1 hr does not cause acute toxicity, whereas inhalation of 33 or 35% can cause unconsciousness within 7 and 5 min., respectively. The early symptoms of arsenic or phosphorus poisoning include vomiting, diarrhea with or without blood, burning sensation of the chest and abdomen, thirst, weakness, difficulty in swallowing, irritation or burning in the eyes and skin, permanent eye damage, ulcers on the skin, irritation in the mouth, nose and throat. Throat sores, cough, and wheezing and shortness of breath may also occur soon after exposure to the chemical.

31 2.5. Precautions for minimizing CaC2 risks i) While purchasing fruits like mango, papaya, banana etc., one should not select those that are homogenously ripened and with eye catching bright colours. ii) Banana can be identified if the stem is dark green, whereas the fruits are all

yellow, it indicates application of CaC2.

iii) Wash and peel the fruits before eating, it minimizes CaC2 ill effects. iv) Before eating mangoes and apples, it is better to cut the fruit into pieces, rather than consuming them directly. This facilitate escaping of harmful gases. v) Do not buy fruits when they arrive in the market before the due period (before

season) because these are forcefully ripened with higher doses of CaC2. 3. Use of acetylene gas Acetylene gas is not a natural plant hormone but it is produced by hydrolyzing of calcium carbide. It contains many toxic chemicals and causes many health hazards. It is also banned by the PFA rules. But its limited use by the farmers and venders is allowed in India, However, the commercial application of acetylene by the corporate and retail chains is banned.

4. Healthy practices of fruit ripening 4.1. Application of ethylene and ethylene based safe chemicals: Ethylene is a phytohormone, which is related to fruit ripening (Burg and Burg, 1965). The amount of endogenous ethylene produced by plant tissue generally increases auto catalytically at a specific stage of growth or development to initiate a physiological response. Application of exogenous or supplemental ethylene to a plant tissue prior to the autocatalytic increase will generally initiate the physiological response as well as the increase in ethylene production (Watada, 1986). Now a day’s ethylene is widely used in fruit ripening at commercial level. Mahajan et al. (2010) reported that banana fruits treated with ethylene gas @ 100 ppm or ethephon @ 500 ppm resulted in uniform ripening with uniform colour, pleasant flavour, desirable firmness and acceptable quality and better shelf-life. Applied ethylene hastens ripening of mangoes even after the climacteric has begun (Burg and Burg, 1961). Ethylene has numerous effects on the growth, development and storage life of many fruits, vegetables and ornamental crops at ml or µl / lit. concentrations (Saltveit, 1999). 4.2. Ethylene based temporary structure: In one of the simple and harmless techniques, 10 ml of ethrel and 2 g of sodium hydroxide pellets are mixed in five litres of water taken in a wide mouthed vessel. This vessel is placed inside the ripening chamber near the fruits and the room is sealed air tight. About a third of the room is filled with fruits leaving the remaining area for air circulation. Ripening of fruits takes place about 12 to 24 hr. Fruits are further allowed to store for about 12 hr without any treatment in order to get brighter colour on peel surface.

32 4.3 Ethylene Based Chambers: Artificial ripening of climacteric fruits generally carried out in the ethylene based chambers having different capacity. For better and uniform ripening of fruits by ethylene require some optimum conditions are (Kader, 1992). • Temperature- 18 to 25°C • Relative humidity- 90-95% • Ethylene concentration 10-100 ppm • Duration of treatments- 24-72 hr depends upon commodity • Air circulation • Ventilation 5. Ripening chambers in India Fruit ripening chamber may consist different ripening chambers with or without packhouse. In many chamber 2-3 ripening rooms are sufficient for number of cycling of ripening because single room create problems if raw material in huge and market share is high. According to protocol standards for ripening chambers by national horticulture board there are two types of ripening chambers are more prevalent in India. These are: 5.1. Ripening Room 1: In this structure of ripening chamber, ethylene equipment added with an insulated cold chamber. For maintaining desire temperature and relative humidity inside the chamber ceiling mounted fin coil evaporators will be connected to the condensing unit outside. In this system air circulation is maintained with modifying air-flow through the arranging of fruits crates. For ventilation a proper ventilation system either manually or automatically provided. In manual system door will be open for 20 minutes at every 12 after 24 hr of ripening. In automatic ventilation fans provided for exchange of fresh air. 5.2. Ripening Room 2: This is second type ripening chamber recommended by committee on standards and protocols of ripening chambers in India. This type of ripening chambers consist a special type of air-flow system, which creates optimum static pressure inside the chamber. The insulated cold rooms have a system of false ceiling, separated and sealed annular space between wall and palletized crates / CFB boxes with or without air inlet locking system to isolate designated pallets etc. Cool air is routed through false ceiling in to boxes with perforated holes of crates / CFB boxes for air circulation) which, in turn are stacked in single / multi tier system. In case of multi-tier stacking, fork lift operation is necessary to handle the produce. 6. Method of Application Before the application of ethylene for fruit ripening, room should be well ventilated. If the room is well sealed than open the doors and about 30-40 minutes for proper ventilation. In large commercial room ventilators are fitted to exchange the air.

33 Mainly two methods are more common for applying ethylene inside the chamber (Kader, 1992). 6.1. Shot system: In this system a shot of measured quantity of ethylene is introduced into the chamber at regular interval. The shots may be applied by weight or by flow using a gauge that registers the discharge of ethylene in cubic feet per minute. In this method optimum temperature maintains and air circulation is important considerations for better ripening of fruits. 6.2. Trickle or flow through system: In this method ethylene is continuously introducing inside the chamber. Care should be taken during regulation by this method because flow of ethylene is very small. This is done by lower down the pressure using a two stage regulator and passing gas into room through a metering valve and flow meter. Air circulation is important inside the room to prevent the higher CO2 and C2H4. For this exhaust port and fan are attached with wall of room. 7. Sources of ethylene 7.1. Ethylene generators: Ethylene generator contains ethylene in liquid form which produced by heating in the presence of catalyst. These type of generators are widely used for ripening. The generator delivers about 14 l of ethylene gas per hour. 7.2. Ethephon (Commercially known as Ethrel/ CEPA): Ethephon is a strongly acidic in nature and chemically known as 2-Chloroethane phosphonic acid. Any solution of more than 5.0 pH hydrolyzes the ethephon molecules resulting ethylene is produced (Silva et al., 2011). Ethrel is applied in the form of liquid, i.e. form of spray or dip in solution. Many researchers applied ethephon for improving colour and ripening of fruits. Rebeiz et al. (1976) reported that use of ethephon to Mission fig during later stage stimulate ripening and change colour from green to black within a week. Similarly, Latundan banana showed uniform and rapid ripening with attractive colour when treated with 2.5% ethephon solution (Tan et al., 2014). Jayawickrama et al. (2001) reported that overall acceptability was higher in papaya fruits treated with ethrel solution rather than ethylene gas and calcium carbide. Dhillon and Mahazan (2011) also concluded that pear fruits treated with 1000 ppm

Table 1. Ideal conditions for ripening of horticultural commodities S. Produce Ethylene Ethylene Ripening Storage temp. No. details Conc. exposure Temp. after ripening (ppm) time (h) (°C) (°C) 1 Mango 100 24 20-22 10-13 2 Banana 100-150 24-48 15-18 13-14 3 Papaya 100 24-48 20-25 ≈ 7 4 Pear 100-150 24-72 18-22 ≈ 0 5 Tomato 100-150 24-48 18-20 12.5 Source: Abdel A. Kader, Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA http:// postharvest.ucdavis.edu

34 ethephon and fogging with 100 ppm ethephon showed best quality at 20°C temperature.

References Annonymous. 2011. Technical Standards and Protocol for the Fruit Ripening Chamber in India, 2011 published by National Horticulture Board (MoAC, Govt. of India) available at www.nhb.com Dhillon, W.S. and Mahajan, B.V.C. 2011. Ethylene and ethephon induced fruit ripening in pear. J. Stored Prod. Postharvest Res. 2(3): 45-51. Kader, A.A. 2002. Postharvest Technology of Horticultural Crops (2nd Edn.), California: University of California, ANR Publications: 3311, 535 Mahajan B.V.C., Kaur, Tajender, Gill, M.I.S., Dhaliwal, H.S., Ghuman B.S. and Chahil, B.S. 2010. Studies on optimization of ripening techniques for banana. J. Food. Sci. Tech. 47(3): 315-319. Quoc, Le Pham, Tan, An Huynh, Thi Truong, Lam, Le Thanh, Ly Le Thi Hong and Suong, Nguyen Thi Tuyet. 2014. The effects of ethephon on the ripening of Vietnamese Latundan bananas (Musa sapientum). Emir. J. Food Agric. 26(3): 229-237. Rahman, A., Chowdhury, F.R. and Alam, M.B. 2008. Artificial ripening: what we are eating. J.Med. 9: 42–44. Ram, H.B., Singh, S.K., Singh, R.V. and Singh, Surjeet. 1979. Effect of ethrel and smoking treatment on ripening and storage of banana cultivar Himachal. Prog. Hort. 11: 69-75. Saltveit, M.E.1999. Effect of ethylene on quality of fresh fruits and vegetables. Postharvest Biol. Technol. 15: 279-292. Siddiqui, M.W. and Dhua, R.S. 2010. Eating artificially ripened fruits is harmful. Curr. Sci. 99 (12): 1664-1668. Sudhakar, P. 2006. Now, a solution to ripen mango the right way. The Hindu, Tamil Nadu, 18 May 2006.

35 Value-added Products of Mango

R.R. Sharma1*, S. Sethi1, V.R. Sagar1, K. Prasad1, A. Nagaraja2 and M. Srivastav2

1Division of Food Science & Postharvest Technology 2Division of Fruits & Horticultural Technology ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012 *E-mail: [email protected]

Introduction The mango (Mangifera indica L.) is called as the ‘King of fruits’ in India. There are about 1,600 varieties of mango, of which about 1200 varieties exist in India itself. Most of the Indian varieties have delicious taste, excellent flavour and attractive appearance. Yet only 20-25 varieties are grown commercially. Mango fruit is a rich source of vitamin A and several mineral nutrients. In India, the mango is grown on 42.64 per cent of total area under fruit crops. At present mango is grown on an area of 2,500 thousand hectares with a production of 18,000 thousand MT, and its production share is nearly 22%. Among states, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (nearly 24% each) are the leading mango producers followed by Karnataka (10%) and Bihar (7%).

Uses of Mango Fruits The fruits of mango are utilized at all stages of their development. In general, the raw fruits are used for preparing pickle, chutney, powder, flakes, and drinks and the ripe fruits besides being consumed as dessert, are also processed in to various value added products such as juice, nectar, squash, jam etc. Although several varieties are grown in India, but most of them are used for table (desert) purposes and only a few have processing attributes, which are used for such purposes (Table 1). The fruits are also preserved as slices in brine or syrup or by dehydration. Attempts have also been made to prepare wine from selected mango varieties at CISH, Lucknow, which has great future for commercial exploitation. The mango seed, often called as kernel, contains 8-10 per cent fat, which can be used in soap making and also serves a good substitute for cocoa in confectionary. Even roasted mango kernel is relished by many people. Greater part of the mango produce is consumed in the domestic market but the export of fruit and its products has been earning valuable foreign exchange in the recent past. India produces nearly 42 per cent of world’s total mango production

36 Table 1. Some processing type mango varieties Variety Chief processing characteristics Alphonso Good for pulping and canning Bangalora Used for processing Baneshan Good for canning Ramkela Excellent for pickling Totapuri Excellent for processing Kesar Ideal for pulping and juice concentrates Chausa Good for processing purpose Amrapali Excellent for pulping Mallika Good for processing purpose and this offers bright prospects for further boosting exports. There is also a wide scope of popularizing the choicest Indian varieties in the world market and adequate efforts should be made in this direction. During 2013-14, India exported 55,585 MT of fresh mangoes and 1,47,816 MT of pulp to different countries which helped in earning huge foreign exchange (Table 2).

Table 2. Export of fresh mangoes and processed products from India (2013-14) Product Quantity Value Major countries (MT) (Rs. in Lakhs) Fresh mangoes 55,585 26,472 United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh Mango pulp 1,47,816 60,856 Saudi Arabia, Yemen Republic, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates

Processing of Mango Mango fruits are utilized at every stage of their growth for the development of several value added products such as chutney, mango powder (aamchoor) and leather, commonly called as ‘Aam papad’ in India. However, there has been constant improvement and standardization of the techniques for preparation of various value- added products of mango. Some of the popular products of mango and their methodologies have been described briefly hereunder.

(A) Raw mango products Raw mango fruits can be used in a number of ways. In the beginning, mangoes are commonly used for sweet or sour chutney. As the fruit growth advances to stone- hardening stage, it becomes suitable for making several useful products, as described hereunder. (i) Green mango beverage Material required: A green mango beverage concentrate could be prepared with the recipe having 25 per cent mango pulp, 40-45 per cent TSS, 2 per cent common

37 salt and acidity adjusted to nearly 1.5 per cent. In addition, small amount of black pepper, mint, ginger, cumin etc., may be added in the beverage. Methodology: For the preparation of green mango beverage, raw mangoes are peeled and cut into slices. Slices are boiled in water by putting them in about double the quantity of slices. Take the extract, add calculated amount of sugar and heat, and cool it to about 50°C. Then add the extract of mint and other spices. Mix the content thoroughly, and add 0.7 g potassium metabisulphite (KMS) per kilogram of the final product. Pour the mixture into pre-sterilized bottles, crown-cork them and seal with molten wax. Green mango beverage is a modified version of ‘Panna’, because in ‘Panna’, sugar is not added and whole boiled/roasted mangoes are used after filtration through muslin cloth. (ii) Amchoor (Mango powder) Material required: Raw mangoes, 0.2% KMS. Methodology: Raw mangoes, preferably from seedling tree are harvested, washed, peeled and cut into slices of 4-5 mm thick and 30-40 mm long. These slices are immersed in 0.2 per cent KMS solution for 10 minutes. The slices are then dried in open-air or in solar/electric dryers. After dehydration, slices converted into a powder by grinding. The power is packed in polyethylene pouches or airtight containers and kept in a dry cool place till use.

Dried raw mango slices Mango powder (Aamchoor) iii) Pickle Different kinds of pickles like sweet, sour, hot and pickle-in-oil are generally made from raw mangoes. However, pickle-in-oil is commonly marketed. The process for making pickle-in-oil is as under: Material required: Mango slices 1 kg; salt 40 g; fenugreek seeds 50 g; ginger 50 g; turmeric 20 g; red chilies 25 g; black pepper 30 g; fennel 30 g; and cooking oil 300 g. Mango pickle Methodology: Wash the fully mature, unripe mango fruits and cut into slices. Mix them with sufficient quantity of powdered salt. Fill the contents in glass jars or

38 polyethylene bags and keep in the sun or until the green colour disappears from the slices. Mix ginger slices with powdered spices. Boil the oil to a smoking point and then cool it. Add spices powder in oil and boil, while mixing continuously to avoid charring. Add salt cured mango slices to it and boil the contents again until the whole mass is well-mixed. Stop heating and add about 10 ml of glacial acetic acid if required and small quantity of clove and cardamom. Cool and pack in suitable containers.

(B) Ripe mango products Ripe mangoes are used for the preparation of various value added products like pulp, nectar, juice, squash, slices, leather, powder etc. However, method of preparation of some of the commercially viable products, have been described hereunder. (i) Pulp For extraction of pulp, select fully-ripe mangoes and wash them in clean water. Remove the peel, cut slices and homogenize into pulp. Pass the pulp through a strainer to remove the fibers. In sweet varieties, upto 3 g citric acid per kg of pulp should be added. Heat the pulp to 76-78°C by continuous stirring and then cool it to 40°C. Add 1-2 g potassium metabisulphite (KMS) per kg pulp. Then, immediately it is filled into clean and sterilized glass or food grade plastic containers and sealed with molten wax Mango pulp and store in neat, dry and cool place till use. (ii) Juice Mango juice can be prepared from all the table varieties of mango. For juice making, first pulp is extracted as described above. Then juice is prepared by mixing 70 per cent water and 30 per cent pulp and addition of sugar and citric acid to make the TSS (total soluble solids) to 20 per cent and acidity to 0.3 per cent. For one kg of pulp, add 1.85 kg water, 450 g sugar and 8 g citric acid. Heat the content to 95°C and fill it hot into pre- sterilized bottles and fix the crown cork. The juice-filled bottles should be pasteurized in boiling water for 20-25 minutes. Then Mango juice take out the bottles and cool them at room temperature and store them at a cool and dry place for future use. (iii) Nectar The procedure for nectar preparation is similar to that of mango juice preparation except that the pulp content is 20 per cent instead of 30%. This may be an excellent substitute for mango juice. Mango chutney

39 (iv) Squash For making mango squash, prepare pulp as described above. Then, dissolve 1.75 kg sugar in 1.25 litre of water and boil it. Add 25-35 g citric acid depending upon the sweetness of the fruit. Filter the syrup into 1 kg pulp and mix thoroughly. If fresh pulp is extracted, 2.8 g KMS often dissolved in little amount of water, which should be may be mixed into squash and immediately. Fill into the clean sterilized bottles and airtight with crown cork Mango squash or cork with molten paraffin wax and store at a cool place till use. (v) Leather (Aam Papad) Mango leather is an important product of mango, which is used widely in India, and commonly called as ‘Aam papad’. For the preparation of mango leather, ripe mango pulp containing 2 g KMS per kg of pulp should be spread on the aluminium foil or on trays, placed in the solar dryer or in an oven. Subsequent layers of the pulp may be added, after initial drying to get thick leather. Cut the dried product into pieces and wrap it in butter paper. The product should be stored in clean, dry and cool place. Mango leather (vi) Dehydrated mango slices Ripe mango fruits can be utilized for making dehydrated mango slices, which can be converted in to powder that could work as a base material for the development of beverages and as a source of raw material when the fresh mangoes are not available. Mango powder is considered to be very healthy and can be used by all age-groups. It is rich in calcium, vitamin A & C. It can be used in the preparation of mango milk shake, juice mix, sharbat, ice Dehydrated mango slices creams, flavours, food items, weight reduction products, biscuits etc. Production of dehydrated mango products such as slices and powder is one of the sectors where a lot of unmarketable mango fruits during the peak season could be converted into value added processed products. For making dehydrated mango slices, select fully-ripe mangoes and wash them in clean water. Remove the peel, and cut in to slices. Dip them in 70ºBrix sugar solution, heat for 2 min. at 90ºC and then cool to room temperature. Drain sugar solution and dry the slices in cabinet dryer at 58 ± 2ºC temperature for 14 hr. After drying, pack the slices in polyethylene bags and store them in a cool dry place for further use.

40 (vii) Puree Mangoes are processed into puree which can be used for making nectar, juice, squash, jam, jelly and dehydrated products. The puree can be preserved by chemical means, or frozen, or canned and stored in barrels. This allows a supply of raw materials during the remaining part of the year when fresh mangoes are not available. Mangoes can be processed into purée from whole or peeled fruit. Because of the time and cost of peeling, this step is best avoided but with some varieties, it may be necessary to avoid off-flavours, which may be present in the fruit peel. The most common way of removing the peel is hand-peeling with knives but this is time- consuming and expensive. Steam and lye-peeling have been accomplished for some varieties. After peeling, the pulp is removed from the seeds by pulper, which can be frozen, canned or stored in barrels for later processing. In all these cases, heating is necessary to preserve the quality of the mango puree. In one process, puree is pumped through a plate heat exchanger and heated to 90°C for 1 min. and cooled to 35°C before being filled into containers and frozen at -23.50°C. (C) Byproducts utilization Several byproducts are produced by mango processing units. For example, canneries produce about 40-60% waste of the total processed mangoes. Of this waste, peel accounts for 15% of the waste, stones 18% and waste pulp accounts for 8 to 10%. These byproducts can be used to feed and extraction of starch, and pectin. In addition, mango kernel contains 7-12% of oil, which is rich in stearic and oleic acids. This oil can be fractionated to give an olein with excellent emollient properties and a stearin that is one of the few fats which can be used to replace cocoa butter used in chocolates in certain countries. (i) Mango oil Mango oil, also called as mango kernel fat, or mango butter, is extracted from dried kernels of ripe mango fruits by hydraulic press, or by solvent extraction. The collected mango stones are washed with well-water soon after collection. After washing, the seeds are sun dried to reduce the moisture content to 12-15%. The dried seed stone is roasted in a drum roaster and the hull is removed mechanically or manually by beating with wooden clubs. The separated kernels are crushed into small pieces in a hammer mill. The mango kernel pieces are conveyed to a pellet making machine and pellets are formed. The pellets are cooled to room temperature in a Mango kernel oil cooler and are conveyed to the solvent extraction plant. It can be used as a substitute for cocoa butter in chocolate manufacturing. This oil also has a medicinal value, and is used in unani and ayurvedic medicines. The fat can be used as an edible oil purpose being slightly modified and also in soap industries.

41 (ii) Kernel flour The kernels of ripe mango fruits can be processed into flour through various processing steps. Its flour is a good source of protein, and fat. It also contains appreciable levels of calcium, magnesium and potassium. This flour can be utilized for the extraction of starch and proteins. Kernel flour can replace wheat flour to an extent of about 5-10% in preparation of various food products like chapatti. It can be used as feed and manure, and in sizing operations in textile and clothing industries, for Mango kern washing clothes, in adhesives, paper and fermentation.

42 Supports from Governmental and other Departments for Mango Entrepreneurs

M.K. Verma and K. Usha

Division of Fruits and Horticultural Technology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012 E-mail: [email protected]

Mango (Mangifera indica Linn) is the most important fruit of India and is known as “King of fruits”. The fruit is cultivated in the largest area, i.e. 2,312 thousand ha and the production is around 15.03 million tonnes, contributing 40.48% of the total world production of mango. The main mango producing states in India are Uttar Pradesh (23.86%), Andhra Pradesh (22.14%), Karnataka (11.71%), Bihar (8.79%), Gujarat (6.00%) and Tamil Nadu (5.09%). Total export of mangoes from India is 59.22 thousand tonnes, valuing Rs. 162.92 crores during 2010-11. India exports mango to over 40 countries worldwide. The major importing countries of India’s mangoes during the period of 2010-11 were UAE (61.79%), Bangladesh (11.41%), UK (8.92%), Saudi Arabia (3.79%), Kuwait (2.32%), and Bahrain (2.19%), respectively. The process of production and processing of mango involves a long chain and require significant investment. These investments are made for making movable and immovable assets required for successful enterprises. For establishment of mango based nursery, orchards and processing industries government and non- governmental organizations supports the necessary financial assistance. These incentives are mainly sponsored by department of agriculture and cooperation in centre and respective agriculture/horticulture departments of different states. In this regards, banks are also playing a vital role for upliftment of mango entrepreneurs. The necessary information is summarized as under: Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture This programme is implemented by Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India and available in all the states of mango growing areas. The necessary financial assistance is provided through these departments as below:

Production of planting material For establishment Rs. 25.00 In case of private sector, credit linked back-ended subsidy of Hi-tech nursery lakh/ha @ 40% of cost, subject to a maximum of Rs. 40 lakh/unit, for (4 ha) a maximum of 4 ha. as project based activity on prorata

43 basis. Each nursery will produce a minimum of 50,000 numbers per hectare of mandated mango plants per year, duly certified for its quality. Small Nursery Rs. 15.00 In case of private sector, credit linked back-ended subsidy (1 ha) lakh/ha of cost, subject to a maximum of Rs. 7.50 lakh/unit, as project based activity. Each nursery will produce a minimum of 25,000 numbers of mandated perennial vegetatively propagated mango plants per year, aromatic plants, duly certified for its quality. High density planting of mango Integrated package Rs. 1.50 Maximum of Rs. 0.60 lakh per ha. (40% of cost) for meeting with drip lakh /ha the expenditure on planting material, cost of drip system, irrigation INM/IPM, canopy management etc., in 3 instalments of 60:20:20 subject to survival rate of 75% in 2nd year and 90% in 3rd year). Without integration Rs. 1.00 Maximum of Rs. 0.40 lakh/ha (40% of the cost) for meeting lakh/ha the expenditure on planting material and cost of INM/IPM in 3 instalments (60:20:20). For (a) and (b) above, in the case of NE and Himalayan States, TSP areas, Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands, assistance will be @ 50% of cost in 3 instalments of 60:20:20 subject to survival rate of 75% in 2nd year and 90% in 3rd year) Rejuvenation / Rs. 40,000/ 50% of the total cost subject to a maximum of Rs. 20,000/ha replacement of ha limited to two ha per beneficiary. senile plantation, canopy management Source: MoA, GoI, 2014 National Horticulture Board National Horticulture Board implements programmes as sub-scheme of Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH). NHB will also house the national level TSG under MIDH including NHM and NBM and extend administrative, logistical and personnel support towards their implementation. List of NHB schemes are given as under: (i) Development of Commercial Horticulture through Production and Post- harvest Managementof Horticulture Crops (ii) Capital Investment Subsidy Scheme for construction/ expansion/ modernization of Cold Storages/Storages of Horticulture Products (iii) Technology Development and Transfer for promotion of Horticulture (iv) Market Information Scheme for horticulture Crops (v) Horticulture Promotion Services / Expert Services. ICAR and State Agricultural Universities Various institutes working under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (IARI, New Delhi; CISH, Lucknow; IIHR, Bengaluru; ICARRCER, Ranchi) and State Agricultural Universities (GBPUA&T, Pantnagar; PAU, Ludhiana; HAU, Hisar; RAU, Samastipur, Bihar; BAU, Sabour, Bihar; OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha;

44 MPUA&T, Udaipur, Rajasthan; ANGAU, Hyderabad; BCKV, Nadia, West Bengal; SVPUA&T, Modipuram; UAS, Dharwad, Raichur, Bagalkot, KKV, Dapoli, MPKV, Rahuri, TNAU, Periakulum, etc.) are engaged in the development of mango based technologies related to plant propagation, high density orcharding, integrated nutrient management, water management, integrated disease & pest management, postharvest management and processing technologies. These institutes are providing the quality planting material of elite varieties at nominal prices and demonstrating the technologies at on-farm and off-farm. APEDA and Export Promotion Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) is working under Ministry Commerce and Industries. APEDA is mandated with the responsibility of export promotion and development of mango based products. In addition to this, APEDA has been entrusted with the responsibility to monitor import of sugar. For maintaining highest quality standards, State-of-the-art packhouse have been set up in major production zones by APEDA. Keeping in view the different country requirements, internationally recognized treatment facilities like Hot water treatment, Vapour heat treatment (VHT) and irradiation facilities have also been set up at various locations across the production belt. Unique product identification system, compliant to the traceability networking and Residue Monitoring Plan has been developed for the consumer safety and readiness to product recall in case of any emergency. APEDA has marked its presence in almost all agro-potential states of India and has been providing services to agri-export community through its head office, five Regional offices and 13 Virtual offices. Head office • New Delhi Regional offices • Mumbai • Kolkata • Bengaluru • Hyderabad • Guwahati Virtual Offices • Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) • Bhubaneswar (Odisha) • Srinagar (J&K) • Chandigarh • Imphal (Manipur) • Agartala (Tripura) • Kohima (Nagaland) • Chennai (Tamil Nadu) • Raipur (Chhattisgarh) • Ahmedabad (Gujarat) • Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) • Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) • Panaji (Goa) The Virtual offices have been established in association with respective State Governments / agencies. Basic information about APEDA, its functions, registrationand financial assistance schemes etc. is being made available to entrepreneurs / prospective exporters by these virtual offices.

45 Success Story

Name of farmer : Sh. Deep Belwal Farm : Vill. Saweldey Postal Address : Kosi Road, Distt. Nainital Ramnagar Ramnagar 244715 Distt. Nainital Uttarakhand Uttarakhand

High density Mallika (2.5 m x 3 m) in 5 acres Normal spacing Mallika (10 m × 10 m) in 5 acres, with guava intercrop Age of plants: 5 yrs Experience Mallika was planted in high density with a view to maximise yields and reduce the time in achieving full productivity. The trees started flowering in the second year itself but no fruit was taken till the fourth year. The first flower left to mature was not a good set, with very few fruit set. Subsequent flowering produced a good fruit set. The size is generally more than 400 g. The colour and texture too were good. The fruit is late ripening, even later than Chausa. The keeping quality is very good. An unripe fruit at room temperature was still edible after 14 days. It has proved to be an annual bearer. No chemical, i.e., Paclobutrazol has been added till date to induce flowering. The fruit has a good yield potential, and the due to its ripening at a very late stage as well as being an annual bearer, it has a good potential to bring high returns to the farmer. It can be successfully cultivated as high density or normal spacing orchard. Pusa Arunima is also performing well and is producing red peeled fruits which are fetching higher price in the market.

Mallika tress in bearing

Pusa Arunima trees in bearing