Hyderabad, May 28: With an impressive array of 229 varieties of the ‘king of fruits’, the Annual Mango Show organised by the Horticultural Department took off, much to the delight of curious visitors and invitees alike.
Earlier slated to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister, the event instead saw reappointed Minister for Agriculture, N Raghuveera Reddy take the dais as chief guest for the function at Public Gardens on Tuesday. The three-day event at Jubilee Hall would showcase some of the finest produce from orchards and farms spread over 4.83 lakh hectares in the State.
The show is poised to highlight the numerous varieties of mangoes and mangobased products that are produced and exported from the State. The Minister explained that the objective of the show was “to bring together farmers, traders, exporters and marketing officials under one roof and promote the fruit and its products in the commercial market.”
Explaining that the production of commercial mango pulp has a high scope for marketability, Reddy revealed that with a current average productivity of 8 tonne per hectare, the scope for mango production is immense, provided the implementation of good farming processes are combined with technology and irrigation facilities.
“Currently, commercial mango pulp has reached 1.06 lakh tonne and can prove valuable for the export as well as domestic market.” The exhibition, apart from showcasing mangoes in all sorts of varieties, from fig sized ones to gigantic single fruits weighing in excess of 2 kg each, had something for everybody.
Presently, the Department of Horticulture informed that it would be providing 50 per cent subsidies for building mango nurseries, apart from an allowance of Rs 22,500 per hectare for farmers starting new gardens. A bonus of Rs 10,000 per hectare will also be offered for farmers utilising organic farming techniques.
At present, the highest yield is from Krishna district, with a production area of 64,930 hectare under mango cultivation, closely followed by Chittoor and Khammam with 58,380 hectare and 50,869 hectare respectively.
At the time of writing, the event had received 1,290 individual entries under the various categories for the exhibition and judging. The show will be open to the public from 9 am to 9 pm, featuring a total of 14 stalls in the categories of farmer sales, nurseries, mango products and horticulture.
-Agencies