July 20, 2006

According to the Pakistan Horticulture and Development Board (PHDB), Pakistan is the fifth largest producer and third largest exporter of mangoes in the world. It produces over one million tonnes of mangoes of which about 60 to 70 thousand tonnes are exported. The Gulf and Saudi Arabia are traditional import markets and thus consume the major part

“The daughter of the sun, Surya Bai, transformed herself into a golden lotus to evade persecution of an evil sorceress. The sorceress became angry when the king of the land fell in love with the beautiful lotus, and she burnt it to ashes. Good overcame evil when a magnificent mango tree sprang from the ashes and Surya Bai stepped out from a ripe mango that had fallen to the ground. The king instantly recognised her as his long lost wife, and the two rejoiced.”

This legend from the old Sanskrit writings is one of the many associated with mangoes, one of the most popular and highly prized fruits of South Asia, which is also referred to as the foods of the gods in the Vedas. Another folklore is about Buddha being given a whole grove of mango trees as a gift where he could rest whenever he wished. From that time onwards mango trees are held in awe by many Asians as being able to grant wishes.

Mango has been associated with fortune and fertility since times immemorial and forms an integral part of many religious ceremonies and traditional functions. It is native to southeastern Asia from India to the Philippines. It is said that mango was first cultivated 4,000 years ago near a place bordering Assam and Burma. Gradually, it spread to tropical and subtropical countries throughout the world.

A member of the cashew family, anachardiaceae, the word mango, Mangifera Indica L., comes from the Tamil word mangaai, or the Malayalam word manga, and popularised by the Portuguese after their Indian exploration. The Portuguese carried the fruit to Africa during the 16th century, then to Brazil in 1700. The USDA Division of Pomology in the US in 1889, made the first successful introductions of grafted Indian varieties (68), the ‘Mulgoba’ being one of these.

Mango is now widely cultivated as a fruit tree in frost-free, tropical and subtropical climates throughout the Indian subcontinent, North and South America, the Caribbean, south and central Africa and Australia. There are many mango varieties popular throughout the world. Currently, the world market is dominated by the cultivar Tommy Atkins, a seedling of ‘Haden’ which first fruited in 1940 in Southern Florida, the USA.

Mango is the fourth rapidly growing trade after taro, single strength citrus juice, and cassava tapioca. The world trade in mangoes, including re-exports, has grown almost three times during the past decade. Current mango trade is estimated to be around 650,000 tonnes per annum. The prominent mango importing countries include the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the USA, the UK, Netherlands, France, Germany and Japan.

Europeans get mangoes from many parts of the world such as Pakistan, Peru, India, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Jamaica, Ivory Coast, Thailand and Australia, preferring the ones with red blush. United Kingdom imports the greatest number than any of the European nations.

The Indo-Pak mangoes are monoembryonic and seedlings differ invariably from each other. The wide variations among the seedling progeny have been responsible for the evolution of several choice varieties in both the countries, which have been further multiplied by vegetative means. The varietal nomenclature is so confusing that one variety carries many names at various places and in some cases one name is applied to several varieties. Some of the varieties popular are: Langra, Alphanso, Sindhri, Aman Dussehri, Chaunsa, Fajri, Mohammadwala, Banganpali, Anwar Ratool, Neelum and Lal Badshah.

According to the Pakistan Horticulture and Development Board (PHDB), Pakistan is the fifth largest producer and third largest exporter of mangoes in the world. It produces over one million tonnes of mangoes of which about 60 to 70 thousand tonnes are being exported. The Gulf and Saudi Arabia are traditional import markets and thus consume the major volume.

In Pakistan, the mango season begins from mid-May in Sindh and ends around the first week of October in Punjab. Punjab and Sindh are the main mango producing provinces with Punjab leading with 78.9 per cent share in mango production, followed by Sindh 20.9 per cent, Balochistan 0.9 per cent and NWFP 0.3 per cent. Last year, the production was 1,674 tonnes, according to PHDB figures.

This year the entire mango belt of southern Punjab and Sindh were hit by a devastating cold wave and the temperatures dropped to -2°centigrade for eight consecutive days, from January 4 - 12. The cold wave was unprecedented, which severely damaged the mango orchards.

“Many nurseries of mangoes have been eradicated, while mango orchards, of 10 years of age, have been damaged up to 60 per cent. The overall loss has exceeded to more than 30-35 per cent. There has been less fruiting this year due to the unexpected amount of frost. We had almost 12 to 14 dust storms of varying intensities during the entire fruit development period. It can be safely predict that our production will be 40 per cent less than the pervious year,” informs Zahid Hussain Gardezi, President Mango Growers Association of Pakistan (MGAP).

To provide relief to the farmers, he demands that mango growers should be given interest-free loans to rehabilitate their source of income by planting new orchards, recovery of loans should be put off for at least two years and farmers should be exempted from paying agriculture taxes. He also suggests that drip irrigation system be immediately introduced to tackle water shortage problem.

 

The hiccups in mango export

As of 2005, India was the largest mango producer, with an area of 1.6 million hectres with an annual production of 10.8 million tonnes, which accounted for 57.18 per cent of the total world production. Experts say that Pakistan can compete with India but the challenge is to offer quality fruit at competitive prices before making inroads in the international market. And that is not possible unless the government intervenes, improves the infrastructure and encourages the farmers by solving their basic problems. In Sindh, the main concern of farmers is water. “A ban was imposed some five years ago on the supply of water to orchards, which is still intact. Farmers do manage to tackle this problem on their own, but the end result is low productivity and low quality. “They also incur losses due to the spread of ‘dieback’, a disease, but do not receive any government help. There is a need to develop food processing zones in mango producing areas as farmers can’t afford to transport their fruit to the city for processing,” says Anwar Gondal, a farmer who has a 200-acre orchard farm in Mirpurkhas. Gondal also points out that there was no system of registration of mango varieties at any level until now. The process has started this year only. Highlighting the need for holding mango exhibitions in big cities, another grower, Ali Gohar Shah, says that if such promotional shows are held at prominent places such as Expo Centre in Karachi, growers will get a better deal, especially the small farmers, since there is no infrastructure for farmers to market their products and they are exploited by middlemen. Commenting on the export situation, Gardezi of the MGAP says, “Though our exports have risen over the years, these have not been significant in terms of value. With almost 75 per cent of the mangoes going to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the Middle Eastern countries, where a large number of expatriates reside, the number of value-added returns has not improved. “At times, we have to sell the fruit at a lesser price in the Dubai market than in Lahore. The government has failed to bridge the gap between quantity and quality, which is primarily due to inadequate research and development in production, marketing as well as infrastructural problems within the agricultural economy.” Sharing the concern of having few fruit processing units in the country, he says that this has resulted in huge post-harvest losses upto 35-40 per cent due to inclement weather and natural calamities. “We need to develop tissue culture and genetic modification to combat diseases and produce healthy trees. We also lack awareness about global consumer demand and global trade restrictions under the WTO, which is unfortunate as it is damaging our interests,” he adds. F.I.

 

A deadly disease

Verticillium Wilt, commonly known as dieback, has killed many mango trees in Punjab and Sindh recently. The disease was first reported in the US in 1977, and is caused by different fungi. It appears with the sudden wilting of foliage on one or more branches in summer. The wood of the affected branches under the bark invariably shows a brown discolouration and the affected plant dies within days. “The disease exists throughout the world, but in its present epidemic form as it is in Pakistan, it has not been reported in any other country. The disease is prevalent throughout Sindh. It invaded Punjab some years ago and at some places the losses are over 15 per cent,” according to M.H. Panhwar. About its control, he said that there was no complete cure once the tree was affected. However, the chances of infection can be reduced by avoiding inter-cropping of orchards with susceptible plants such as cotton, tomato and potato and also by better management in terms of application of macro and micro-nutrients, disease control and eradication of weed. The risk of infection is less in dry soils than in moist ones. “Blood meal, fish meal, cotton cake and ammonium sulphate applied to the soil also reduce inoculation of potential fungus. Clean cultivation promotes the problem, whereas maintenance of sod strip between the tree rows offers some control. Nitrogen and potassium fertilisers applied through the soil reduce the disease in susceptible plants, but do not eliminate it. However, Chloropicrin applied to the soil at a ratio of two to 2.5ml per square foot at a depth of 12 inches is effective in destroying the fungus,” he said. According to some growers, the damage was 10 to 12 per cent in Sindh. An expert from Australia also came to examine the disease sometime ago and took some samples for study. But, there is no response from there as yet. The growers complained that they had received no guidance from the government on how to combat the disease. —F.I.

 

A man-wife team

Recipient of Sitara-i-Imtiaz, five lifetime achievement awards, Best Horticulturist of Pakistan award, founder of the government agricultural engineering set up in Sindh, author of several books including An illustrated Historical Atlas of Soomra Dynasty of Sindh and Five Thousand Years History of Irrigation in Sindh, and scores of articles, M.H. Panhwar, a gold medalist of the 1949 batch of Sindh University, is truly, by all definitions, a man par excellence. The list of his works and achievements is long and requires a thorough reading to fully acknowledge his contributions to various fields of sciences. Having worked as a consultant for over 30 years in different projects, Panhwar has the distinction of being the first in many aspects of his field. He is the first to carry out a ground water survey in the whole of Sindh and Balochistan and at the same time being the writer of 11 booklets on the subject. It was under him that tubewells were introduced in Sindh and full mechanisation of vegetables and groundnuts was carried out on a commercial scale at his farm at Kissano Mori near Tando Jam. However, his most important contribution has been the introduction and development of new varieties of fruit, nuts and industrial crops. These include dates, jojoba oil nut, jatropha nut, buffalo-gourd, mango, peach, plum, avocado, cashew, papaya, simarouba glauca, lychee, Tahiti lime, grapefruit, grapes, guava, pummelo, pear, persimmon, Z.jujube, fig, longan and pomegranate. Looking at his achievements one wonders how he has managed to do so much in such a short time. His age has failed to take away from him the vigour and the exuberance needed to explore new avenues. Much credit for his vitality goes to his wife Farzana, a researcher herself whose forte is biotechnology. The couple relishes the knowledge which has kept them going all these years. “We have spent a lot of money to grow and develop new varieties here, and still are ready to spend more, despite receiving no government support or positive feedback from growers who are unwilling to pay even half the amount spent on growing new varieties,” says Panhwar. The Panhwars have authored 28 handbooks on different fruits, nuts and industrial crops, besides producing three big research volumes on mango plantation, harvesting and disease control. All these research scripts, which are updated from time to time, remain unpublished form due to the lack of funds. The duo started work on growing new varieties of mangoes here in 1985 and so far they have successfully grown 35. Of them, 18 are brought from the USA, Australia and Brazil and 17 are grown from seedlings. Their varieties are bigger in size, produce better yield (for instance one variety produces 10 tons per acre as compared to Sindhri’s three tons per acre), have more pulp and are less prone to pest attacks and disease and flower in shorter time as compared to the local varieties. The technique of rejuvenation has helped to make old mango trees produce better yield. “Our method of developing new varieties is very simple, that is, to keep the record of the grown tree and make a selection out of the better ones, while rejecting the ones with poor quality. In Pakistan, there has been no work on growing new fruit varieties on scientific lines. Farmers are still growing the 19th century varieties which were brought from India. We are the first to grow a large number of fruit varieties including mangoes, and to adopt the technique of rejuvenation technique on a larger scale,” he claimed The Panhwars are also the first to develop an organic farm. No chemical is used at the farm even to control disease. “Pesticides destroy the micro-organisms necessary for making the soil healthy and have also been found to cause various human diseases. Though organic methods require better management and cost more money, they increase the fertility of the land three times more, resulting in better yields. Also, to make a mango tree flower in two to three years, instead of four to five years, some varieties were carefully selected and are now being grown on a lar ger scale. It took us years to make those selections,” Farzana pointed out. When asked about the Sindh-Punjab development in mango, Panhwar said: “Punjab was developed as a mango growing province during the One-Unit system. A large part of the land there is owned by army men so they have a tradition of agriculture extension services. It has an edge over Sindh as far as yields are concerned. In Sindh, the landlords are poor and people don’t know that 98 per cent of their lands are mortgaged with the banks. They don’t even have a system to keep the records of yields per year.” A salt-resistant variety was identified by the Panhwars last year, which they plan to experiment upon in the future on saline soil or soil with supply of salty water. They also planted Keitt, one of the world’s top most varieties, which they imported from Florida. But, unfortunately, sixty per cent of the fruit crop suffered sunburn because of the differences in temperature. The Panhwars selected those plants which had the least sunburn and developed them further more to get a variety that could adjust to the local environment. This year, hail and dust storms along with frost damaged their crops and they could hardly make both ends meet. However, they are keeping their fingers crossed and hope that the coming years would be more fruitful. — F.I.

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