Summer Delight
The recently held mango festival gave Delhites an opportunity to taste mangoes from all across the country. Several varieties of mangoes were on display during the three day-long fair.
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| Various varieties of mangoes were on display in the fest |
Horti Sangam 2011, an inter-state agriculture fair was held in Delhi from May 27 to May 30. The fair opened on a good note with people from all across the capital showed a keen interest in the festival. The festival is held every year in the month of May, and this was the eight time it was held in Delhi. Several varieties of mangoes were put on the display on May 27 this year.
Mango growers from all across the nation participated in the event enthusiastically.
India is the largest producer of mangoes in the world. India exports about 40,000 tonnes of mango in 80 countries and annual sales of mangoes and mango products export reached 85 million U.S. dollars in 2009-10.
M C Shanthakumar, a mango grower from Tamil Nadu shared his experience, “ This is the first time I am taking part in this festival. This is a good experience for me. We have brought over 10 varieties of mangoes for the customers here. The most selling variety is Alphonso and others which are witnessing good demand is Banisha and Malguava.”
On the Madhya Pradesh stall, there were several varieties of mango were on display. ‘Dussehri’ one of the most popular mango variety was available in the stall and people were thronging to buy it from here. Indra Kumar Rawat, one of the farmers from the state, looked happy. He said that he learnt a lot from here and will use this experience to further improve the production and quality of his produces.
L S Rautkar, Senior Horti Development officer from Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh was accompanying the farmers in the fest. He said, “ We are here to learn from other growers. Our major focus is to improve the quality of mango we grow in the state. Through these events, we give our farmers a platform to exchange ideas with the farmers of other states. We are telling them the benefits of cultivation management and training them to use drip irrigation to increase productivity.”
However, Many other shop-owners (read mango-growers) complaint that “lack of publicity” have eaten their business. They blamed organizers for the “low turnout” of customers. Salil Damle, a mango trader from Maharashtra was apparently unhappy with the organizers. He blamed authorities for not “publicizing” the event.
However customer relations desk of the event rubbished the blame. They said that scorching heat is one of the major reasons for low turnout of people. Sarita Agarwal, who came all the way from Ghaziabad to buy Alphonso hailed the event. She bought over 10 kgs of mango. She said, “ Though, many varieties of mangoes are available in the city, but we don’t get such a diverse range to choose from. I am happy that the festival is organized.”
