Three-day mango mela starts May 28

The Dharwad belt is known for growing the best quality of the popularly variety of alphonso or ‘aapus’.

The department of horticulture will organise a mango mela from May 28-30 at the premises of horticulture office in Dharwad. The main aim is to introduce the other varieties of mangoes like Allumpur Beneshan, Baramasi, Neelgoa, Fazali, Bombay green, Purihaar, Mallika, Neelam and totapuri among others.

This is the third edition of the mela where over 70 varieties of mango grown in the district will be on display and also on sale.

Assistant director of horticulture P Saralamma said that along with mangoes, other products of the fruit like pickles, jelly, juice and murabba will be on sale at the mela. The event should also prevent middlemen from skimming away profits, and enable the growers get a remunerative price.

 

A technical cell to provide information and guidance on pest control and nourishment of the crop will be set up.

The cultivators have the habit of leasing out the mango crop while at the flowering stage itself. The contractors pluck the fruit before they are ripe and use calcium carbide to ripen them artificially.

Saralamma said this would deprive the consumers of the real taste of the fruit and would harm the health. “The farmers would be informed about ethylene gas treatment for natural ripening of the fruit,” she said.

Special seminars to the cultivators to adopt high-density crop model and methods to grow mangoes according to the market requirement will be held.