Miguel Braganza
During the late 1960s, the song ‘Love is a Mango’ by the Cavaliers was a popular choice at wedding receptions. Mango has always been a fruit of the heart’s desire, even before named varieties began to be propagated by grafting in the mid-1500s A.D. The ghontt, or the rather fibrous sucking mango, was used both for pickling in salt as chhepnne tor and for consumption as a ripe fruit—either sucked or made into aamras with milk.
Raw mango is a craving shared by schoolchildren and pregnant women alike, as is mango pickle. Thanks to my friend Vivek Menezes, I had the privilege of discussing this with Sopan Joshi, the author of Mangifera indica—an unlikely title for a book by a journalist. The botanical name of mango was chosen by the publishers, who have a mind of their own when it comes to what will sell.
The song remains imprinted in my mind. Its refrain was: “Love is a mango that grows on a tree; wait till the mango is ripe.” At that age, I was neither interested in love nor in ripe mangoes. The moment raw mangoes were big enough to eat, we would bring them down from the tree with a stone or a piece of clay roof tile. We even carried salt wrapped in paper in our pockets to school—one never knew when a raw mango might be spotted on a tree while walking home.
Young ‘Krishi Ratna 2022’ awardee Rajat Rudresh Prabhu of Nirankal-Ponda has begun propagating select raw mango varieties for pickling, as well as choice seedling mangoes for cooking in curries. The laborious inarching or approach grafting technique, introduced by the Jesuits into Goa and later across India, is no longer necessary. Since the 1980s, the epicotyl grafting technique developed by Dr. R. S. Amin has made life simpler for all of us. Prabhu will help preserve selected seedling progeny through grafting.
The Mankurad (or Malcorada) is the first mango to hit the market. While it carries a Geographical Indication (GI) for Goa, the first fruits invariably come from across the border. In April 2024, Mankurad mangoes were exported from GOX, the code for Mopa Airport in North Goa. The credit for exporting 300 boxes of these mangoes from Goa goes to Kay Bee Exports. The mangoes were procured from a local farmer growing them in the Thane- Dongurli Panchayat area of Sattari.
The Hapus (or Ratnagiri Alphonso) enters the market alongside the Mankurad, but it is not the preferred choice among Goans, as it is often force-ripened in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district. However, one farm in Devgad markets slow-ripened Hapus mangoes that meet local taste preferences. This farm is also a Global GAP-certified mango orchard. Earlier in 2024, Goa reached a new milestone by air freighting its first one-tonne Alphonso mango consignment to Oman. With an increasing number of direct flights from Goa to Sharjah, Doha, and Muscat, there is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to tap into these markets. Now is the time to act.
