Mango is one of the most popular and best-loved fruits worldwide. In Pakistan, the cultivation of this fruit is as old as the civilization of this tract. It is a rich source of vitamins A, C and D. Pakistan produces more than one million ton of quality mangoes, out of which about 48,000 tons are exported to earn the foreign exchange.

Mango is second most important fruit crop after citrus in term of area and production. Its per capita consumption in Pakistan is about 6.7 kg. Besides being a rich source of vitamins, it also contains formidable amount of proteins, sugars, organic acids, carbohydrates and minerals.

Pakistan is lucky enough to be endowed with wide range of agro-climatic conditions, which permit the production of varieties of both tropical and temperate fruits. Mango prefers deep, rich fertile soil, because of its long tap root system. It may be found flourishing on wide range of soil. Soil reaction is important than soil type. As far as the world mango production is concerned, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it is estimated at 29 million tons. India, with a share of 54 per cent, is at the top with a production of 15.64 million tons, followed by China (11.46 per cent) with a production of 3.3 million tons. Mexico (5.3 per cent) produces 1.5 million tons and Thailand (4.68 per cent) 1.3 million tons. Pakistan, with a share of 3.25 per cent and a production of about one million,is placed at fifth position.

The Pakistani mango has a demand in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, France, Kuwait, Singapore and Germany. In 2001 Pakistan exported 53,440 tons ,fetching over $15 million.

Mango nursery is a specialized garden arranged by fences where different type of saplings and seedlings of fruits plants, timbers, flowers, vegetables and spices are produced throughout the year with intensive care, management and skilled techniques. The works which are done in nurseries are mainly land development, spading soil, seed bed preparation, seed collection and processing, seeding, production of saplings and seedlings and their intercultural operations like grafting, budding, weeding water management, pest management, saplings and seedlings processing for selling and marketing, etc. So the scope of employment in nursery management may be greater compared to other operations of field crops and vegetables or any other agricultural enterprises.

The establishment of a mango nursery is a good source of income for nursery producers. There are many commercial nurseries in our study area. People associated with farming mostly privately own these nurseries. The size of nurseries varies, ranging from a few plants to many hectares. Survey results show that 80 per cent of mango growers purchased mango plants from commercial nurseries and 20 per cent of the respondents managed their own nurseries, especially the large growers. These nursery producers benefited in two ways: (i) they select the best planting material for their own orchard with a minimum cost of production,and (ii) they sell excess plants to neighbouring growers to earn income.

There is a minimum cost involved in the existing method of raising a mango nursery. The method described by the nursery producers is that they buy seed stone of desi mango varieties at the rate of Rs200/bag of 40 kg. A preference for buying desi seed stone was reported by the respondents because they have better germination capacity than the grafted seed stone which germinate at the rate of 25 per cent only. After buying seed stone from the market, these must be kept in water-until the majority of seeds germinate. These are then taken out from the water and broadcast in a well-prepared nursery field.

Soon after broadcasting of mango seed in the nursery field, it needs irrigation with an interval of 10-15 days, until the plants become healthy. The distance between plants are to be maintained at about 6-12 inches, irrigation, FYM and interculturing of the nursery must continue as per plants’ requirements. After 12-15 months plants must be grafted with a selected variety of mango. The material required for grafting has to be provided by the nursery owner, but Malis charge only Rs 2.00/plant as service charge from nursery owners. The success of grafting is about 90 per cent, reported by the respondents. After the age of 2.5 to 3 years, these plants would be ready for transplanting to the mango orchard. However, many technical deficiencies were observed in the present commercial mango nurseries such as:

I. Planting of nursery beds close to mature mango trees.

II. Poor interculturing practices.

III. Complete absence of labelling of both the mother plants and the stock.

IV. Poor selection of root-stock.

V. Extensive plant population.

VI. Seed source from local growers.

VII. Grafting performed in traditional ways.

Healthy planting material is essential to achieve good yield and quality produce. Therefore, these traditionally managed nurseries need to be improved. A well established commercial nursery must improve the way of producing planting material by using new planting techniques with modern technology: (a) select root-stock from known polyembryonic cultivars and rouging out of abnormal seedlings at an early stage, (b) selection of scion bud wood from known high yielding mother trees and (c) selection of proper method of budding/grafting of nursery rootstocks. In addition, the nursery site must be away from the mature mango plants and the plants be kept at wide spacing. Well-trained staff should carry out the budding and grafting and all planting material must be correctly labelled.

Most of the planting material is produced by the private sector without any technical guidance. The available root-stock is mostly unknown, with low genetic capability to produce. There is no legislation to regulate the private sector or make it responsible to produce healthy material. There is a need to introduce and implement nursery rules and regulations to stop the private sector producing and selling without certification of healthy material.

Quality seed is perhaps the most important input for attaining higher levels of productivity of agriculture crops. The government has recognized its importance and set up a national seed corporation (NSC) with branch offices in all provinces of Pakistan. The main emphasis of NSC was to produce certified seed under the supervision of seed producing experts on state farms. However, the Sindh Seed Corporation (SSC) has failed to achieve the stated objectives, whereas the Punjab Seed Corporation (PSC) is providing relatively better quality seed for cotton, wheat and rice crops.

However, there is no mandate for NSC to produce certified seed of horticultural crops. Moreover, there is also an unreliable and disorganized system for importing new planting material from other mango producing countries. The introduction of disease-affected plants by mistake could possibly destroy the whole industry in the country as recently happened with the banana crop in Sindh. At this stage public involvement in production of nursery stock is not suggested, but the government should support development of private sector nurseries.

The public sector should provide only technical support such as supply of high quality planting material, provision of credit facilities and implementation of a regulatory framework for quality control and certification. Mango nursery owners at present face the following problems:

1. Lack of capital and institutional loan. 2. Lack of good quality sapling and seed. 3. Lack of skilled workers. 4. Lack of knowledge regarding modern technologies.

An investigation was conducted to ascertain the income of the private nurseries in Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad districts. The investigation revealed that the area of the nurseries ranged from 0.07 hectare to 1.8 hectares with average 0.51 hectares of land. The annual average investment, income and net benefit per nursery were Rs31,780, 76,650 and 44,870 respectively. The return-investment ratio from a private mango nursery is estimated at 1:2.41,meaning return on every rupee is Rs 2.41 or a profit of Rs141 on Rs100 invested. These findings indicated that the private mango nurseries were profitable and income oriented compared to other agricultural enterprises. Here it may be mentioned that the investment was calculated on the full cost basis and return was calculated from the actual sale of the year.