Man goes ... Goa goes ... mangoes Tips to take care of a tree yielding delightful fruit
By Miguel Braganza [email protected] THE FLAVOUR of the season is mango. Even the Amul ice-cream we ate to celebrate my father's birthday was of fresh 'Alphonso Mango' pulp. My friends, Yogita Mehra and Karan Manral, together with the Chorao Farmers' Club facilitated by Premanand Mahambrey with support of NABARD and Central Bank of India, have already made a hit with "Aamche" mangoes with their strict quality control and after-sales service. If by chance, one of the mangoes was not to your satisfaction, you received an immediate replacement. I wish I could have got that kind of service with the dozen Devgad Alphonso mangoes, three of which had spongy tissue locally known as 'lashem'. Obviously, the mangoes were not harvested in the cool hours of the morning as is recommended to avoid spongy tissue problems. The Devgad Alphonso is supposedly better than the Ratnagiri Alphonso because it is grown on rocks and consequently has less fibre and an early crop. However, exposure to heat at maturity and harvest time predisposes the Alphonso to enzyme malfunction leading to the spongy tissue. The starch is not converted to sugar and the patch remains white as in a raw mango. Spongy tissue or not, Mac Vaz is a worried man ever since reports started percolating that the Government of a neighbouring state wanted to get a G.I. for 'Alphonso' mangoes after threatening to bottle cashew feni for which Goa already has a Geographical Indication like Tequila of Guadalajara Province of Mexico. Many years ago, I had read Jay Dubaxi's comment on people and mangoes. "There are only two kinds of people in this world," he wrote, "those who love mangoes and the others who are slightly touched." It is almost impossible to think of a sane person who does not love mangoes. They drive me insane with their colour, flavour, juiciness and even just the aroma of ripening mangoes. The Malcurada, Malgueso, Alphonso, and Kesar mango season is almost over. Now it is time for the Manga Hilario, Fernandina, Xavier and Monserrate mangoes to make their presence felt. Incidentally, the Hilario is named after the father of our former Minister for Education, Raul Fernandes, and Monserrate is the surname of the incumbent minister. Mangoes are educative. Those who want to know more about "Mangoes of Goa" can buy an illustrated book of that name from ICAR-Goa library for just Rs. 50 a copy. Mango trees respond to care and affection as do people all over the world. Thank the tree for the good crop with a little manure and lots of water. If the crop was poor because the tree was neglected last year, make amends with some care now. A K-GAP, or Konkan-Good Agricultural Practice, is to dig a ring two feet (60 cm) wide and one foot deep along the 'drip circle', i.e. the outer ring of the tree canopy along which rain water would drip from the tree if it was an umbrella. The active 'feeding roots' of the tree are located here to take maximum advantage of the rain water and also to balance the weight of the extended branches of the tree. The soil from the trench is heaped like a berm or 'mer' on the outer side of the ring. Manure is applied in the trench, half the soil is shoveled back to cover it, and the tree is provided with 200 litres of water in one go. What manure is applied depends on the soil reaction or pH and whether one is doing sustainable organic farming or still having a 'Green Revolution' hangover. Organic farming avoids manufactured chemicals, even if they are 'organic' chemicals like urea and DDT. Rock Phosphate and Muriate of Potash, which are extracted from mines as we extract iron ore in Goa, are permitted and necessary in the soils of Goa which are poor in phosphorus and potash. Where possible, these mineral elements should be obtained from bone-meal, fish-meal, wood ash that are locally available. Use of green manure, fish solutions, phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) and Panchagavya are strongly recommended. The first dose of manure can be 5 kg neem cake, 2 kg. rock phosphate and 1 kg muriate of potash along with 2 gamelas (half of an empty cement bag) of compost, dried biogas slurry or sewage sludge can be applied for one bearing mango tree above ten years of age. Take care to cover the manure with soil and then irrigate in the trench. To get best results, remove any loranthus parasite (bendhul) with an iron hook (bendhullem) and apply diesel or liquid tar with a brush on the cut ends to prevent it from sprouting afresh as well as rotting of the wood due to exposure to rain. The best time to do this is immediately after harvest of the mangoes from the trees. For Malcurada trees do it now. By the time you need to manure the Fernandina mango trees, watering may be totally unnecessary. -- Miguel Braganza has been an agricultural officer and is the Secretary of PGS-OIC. The PGS is an internationally applicable organic quality assurance system implemented and controlled by the committed organic farmer-producers through active participation, along with the consumers, in the process based on verifiable trust. It is a certification system based on personal integrity and peer pressure. Braganza also works in horticulture, facilitation and networking. CONTACTS: Miguel Braganza, S-1 Gracinda Apts, Rajvaddo, Mapusa 403507 Goa India Ph +91-9822982676;91-832-2255913 http://www.ofai.org http://www.pgsorganic.in This article was first published in the Herald, Goa.
