18 Multivarietal orchards An age-old conservation practice in mango T.M. Gajanana, M.R. Dinesh, Sudha Mysore, C. Vasugi, Bhuwon Sthapit, Hugo A.H. Lamers, B.M.C. Reddy, V. Ramanatha Rao and V. Dakshinamoorthy GPD ‘passport’ GPD code: 12 Focus area: Production and crop management Character: System Species and varieties: Mangifera indica, including a seedling population and 28 different varieties such as Totapuri, Banganapalli, Neelum, Alphonso, Atimadhuram, Lalbaba, Gaddemar, Omelette, Rumani, Khuddus, Imam Pasand, Ali Pasand, Kalepadu, Seeri, Reddy Pasand, Dil Pasand, Chitti Bangalora, Mallika, Peter, Gadiyaram, Thorapadu, Raja Pasand, Pulira, Mulgoa, Manoranjitam and Chakkaraguttulu Name of location: Bangarupalyam, Talupulapalle and Polakala villages in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, India GIS reference of Bangarupalyam Talupulapalle Polakala location(s): N 13°11′24′′ 13°23′40′′ 13°26′14′′ E 78°12′37′′ 79°03′26′′ 79°01′03′′ Name of farmers Data collected from 195 male farmers (65 from (data resource): each community)* and 1 woman custodian farmer *Data were collected at the household level, with men being the primary respondents as they are considered the head of household and knowledge holders on mango cultivation. Mango conservation in multivarietal orchards 227 Introduction Mango, the king of fruits, is one of the most important fruit crops grown in India, accounting for 38 per cent of area planted and a 22 per cent share of total fruit production. Mango has been cultivated in India for at least 4,000 years and more than 1,000 varieties are recognized (Mukherjee, 1953). The large variability that is exhibited by mango is due to seed propagation and the high heterozygosity present (Iyer and Schnell, 2009). Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh is one of the major commercial mango production areas in India. Despite increasing commercialization and the establishment of mango pulp processing industries, many farmers in Chittoor maintain multivarietal orchards. This chapter outlines and explores this age- old practice of maintaining multiple varieties in an orchard and examines whether this practice contributes to mango varietal diversity. Although 20 to 28 varieties are grown commercially at a community level, at a household level, average household richness ranges from four to five varieties. In addition to commercial varieties, most of the orchards surveyed showed that farmers grew indigenous seedling types (naati type, often unnamed). Farmers explained that they maintain local varieties because they are the most suited to local home use and consumption (in the form of pickles, juice, spice ingredients or fresh), but also because they improve pollination services by combining both early and late varieties, thus spreading nectar availability for pollinators. They also get better prices and higher yields. Context Chittoor has developed into one of the main mango growing belts in South India. Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh has a hot, dry climate with low temperatures of 12–18°C in winter, high temperatures of 38–46°C during summer and an average rainfall of 918 mm per year. The region receives rainfall from the southwest monsoon from June to September and the northeast monsoon from October to December. Land is mostly covered by red sandy soils. The mango cultivation is rainfed, but irrigated by a tube well irrigation system at critical stages. The water table has dropped to dangerously low levels in the last two decades and bore well irrigation has become a necessity, although it is also failing due to dwindling groundwater resources. Mango cultivation is less water-demanding than other water-intensive crops like sugarcane and paddy. The average farm size in Chittoor is 2.6 ha and the main crops grown are mango, sugarcane and groundnut. During the last two decades, several, both small and large, processing plants of mango pulp have been established in Chittoor due to the increased demand for exports. Hence, over the last two decades farmers have slowly replaced traditional varieties with commercial types that are in demand from pulp processing plants. As a result many new plantations have been initiated with commercial types. A survey revealed that 228 Gajanana, Dinesh, Mysore, Sthapit et al. more than 95 per cent of the total number of trees belong to the four most popular commercial varieties, namely Totapuri (local name Bangalora), Neelum, Banganapalli (Baneshan) and Alphonso (Khadar). The varieties Alphonso and Totapuri are in demand from the processing plants and Alphonso is also used as a table variety. The varieties Neelum and Banganapalli are mainly sold as a fresh fruit for table purposes in regional markets. In spite of the dominance of these four commercial varieties, many other mango varieties are still maintained in Chittoor (Table 18.1). The tail of the tail of these (rare and unique types) have potential scope for diverse use and commercialization. Identification of the good practice for diversity A number of tools were used to identify good practices for diversity management in three communities (Bangarupalyam, Talupulapalle and Polakala) in the Chittoor site as part of the TFTGR project.1 They included: (i) consultations with local experts, (ii) participatory rural appraisal (PRA) including Four Cell Analysis (FCA) and Diversity Fairs, (iii) Focus Group Discussions and (iv) a baseline survey. For the baseline survey, a random multistage sampling methodology was used to select respondents from each community. In each community of about 500 households (HH), a sample of 10 per cent (approximately 50 households) was selected. Further, another 15 HH were selected as a control group in each community. In total, 65 households (50 samples + 15 controls) were selected for each community, thereby making a total sample size of 195 respondents from the three communities. In addition, one custodian farmer (female) was identified and her views were also added to the analysis. The sampling structure was designed in such a way as to give representation to small (<1 ha), medium (1–2 ha) and large (>2 ha) growers. A pre-tested questionnaire was administered by interviewing the head of the sample households for collection of relevant information. Genetic diversity analysis was performed using the Simpson Index (SI) (Meng et al., 1998; Kruijssen and Mysore, 2010) and the Margalef Index (MI) (Nagarajan et al., 2007). Description of good practice for diversity During the PRA, FCA and baseline survey, researchers observed that Chittoor farmers have increasingly adopted the practice of keeping multiple varieties of mango in current and new commercial and semi-commercial orchards and home gardens. A multivarietal orchard is defined as an orchard that has more than five varieties. This definition was considered based upon the baseline data of the average number of varieties (i.e. richness of 4.7) per orchard found in the community. It is interesting to note that this practice was observed in a very commercially oriented mango production system. Then the question is, why do farmers do this? The multivarietal orchard, containing seedling and traditional types, is considered a good practice for diversity management in commercial production areas because the system serves the purpose of multiple Mango conservation in multivarietal orchards 229 home uses and also helps maintain indigenous seedling varieties and lesser- known varieties along with established commercial varieties. Moreover, a multivarietal orchard often includes a combination of rare or local varieties in addition to the most common commercial types, in this case Totapuri (Bangalora), Neelum, Banganapalli (Baneshan) and Alphonso (Khadar). The general characteristics of good practice for diversity management are a combination of many varieties – whether commercial or local – in one orchard. Based on expert consultation there are basically five key reasons why farmers have multivarietal orchards: • Commercial interest • Pollinator effect to improve yields • Minimize risk of losing income from monopoly markets • Including early and late bearing varieties or regular bearers to lengthen harvest season • Home use and personal interest. This multivarietal orchard system in Chittoor tends to consist of South Indian varieties that are mostly regular bearers that fruit every year and usually includes some or all of the four most popular varieties – Totapuri (Bangalora), Neelum, Banganapalli (Baneshan) and Alphonso (Khadar) – for income generation, in addition to a few seedling (naati) types or traditional varieties such as Imam Pasand, Atimadhuram and Lalbaba. These seedling and traditional types flower profusely, thus attracting bees and other insects, which improve the pollination and fruit setting of the commercial varieties. According to Mr Chitti Reddy, one of the farmers interviewed, this practice improves yields by 10 per cent to 25 per cent. Some farmers, like Mr Chandrasekhar Reddy (one of the custodian farmers having >10 varieties of mango), keep beehives inside the orchards to further improve pollination services and also obtain additional income by selling honey. Honey production improves if orchards have many varieties flowering at different times. Traditional and naati seedling saplings tend to be taller, so birds are attracted to them and eat their fruit, thus minimizing fruit loss of the most popular commercial varieties. The choice of varieties in multivarietal orchards is driven by the farmers’ livelihood strategy. For example, to avoid the low prices during the