We’ve listed down all the basic things you need to know to start a successful Moringa Farming Business.
Mango is one of the most popular fruits in India. It belongs to the group Anacardiaceae, whose members include cashew nut, pistachio, and almond. Its botanical name is Mangifera Indica L., and its common name is King of Fruits. Apart from being tasty, nutritious, and fragrant, it also contains high levels of Vitamin A & C. Hence, it is often called “The King Of Fruits”.
Mangoes occupy approximately one-quarter of the world’s fruit market, making up roughly 12 percent of global fruit exports. They account for 10 percent of the world’s fresh fruit consumption per capita. The top five exporters of mangoes are India, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.
To be successful at mango farming, you need to use a good plant management strategy. You need to choose varieties that produce large fruits with fewer seeds.
Economic Importance of Mango Cultivation
Mango is one of the most popular fruits in India. Its popularity stems from its unique combination of sweet and sour flavors, which make it an ideal dessert or snack food. Most mangoes are eaten fresh, but they may also be processed into jams, jellies, chutneys, pickles, preserves, syrups, juices, and sherbets. The fleshy pulp surrounding the seed contains pectin, which gives it a gel-like consistency.
However, the acidity of ripe fruits ranges from 0.2% to 0.5%, and their protein content is about 1%. Ripe raw sliced mangoes in brine, amchur, pickles, jellies, jam, murabba, chutneys, and pan Hazari (sharbat) are some of the most common value-added products of mango. Mangoes are a good source of timber.
Mango is one of the most popular tropical fruit worldwide. It has been ranked second after pineapple in terms of quantity and third in terms of market share. India accounts for 40 percent of global mango exports. Major importers include the US, Bangladesh, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, and Australia.
How to Start Mango Farming Business
- You need to adopt improved varieties. High-density plantings are essential.
- You need to control the timing of when flowers bloom and their strength.
- Malformed mango shoots need to be removed before they bear fruit.
- Therefore, you should manage the alternate bearing by preventing fruit production during a season by implementing prune and thinning techniques.
- You need to ensure that there is the sufficient water supply for plants during their most important stages of development.
- Integrated nutrient and fluid management is important.
- Sod Mulch: Manage Spongy Tissues Through Sod Mulching
- Finally, integrated pest and disease prevention into your production systems. Control them early when they’re small and easy to manage.
Health Benefits of Mango
- Studies show that mangos protect against colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemias, and prostate cancer.
- Fiber, pectin, vitamins A, B6, and C, and minerals like magnesium and potassium help to lower LDL cholesterol.
- Mango helps get rid of acne by clearing out blocked pores.
- Vitamin A helps keep your vision healthy and prevent night blindness and dry eye syndrome.
- Tartaric acid, malate, and citrate found in the fruit help to keep the body’s alkaline reserve.
- Mangoes’ fiber also aids digestion and elimination.
- Mango has been proven to help strengthen the immune systems of humans.
Best Varieties For Mango Farming
In India, there are thousands of types of mangoes grown commercially. They vary widely in size, color, and taste. But they all share one common characteristic – they are all delicious!
So if you’re planning to grow your own mango tree, then choose a type that suits your climate and soil conditions. You can also buy readymade trees from nurseries.
Mallika: It’s a cross between Neelams and Dasher is.
Amrapali: A cross between Dasher and Neelam. But it is a short-duration variety with early maturity and medium vigor.
Alphonso: The pulp is light yellow to golden in color. Therefore, it is softer, firmer, and fibrous. It is a mid-season variety.
Manganese: It is a crossbreed of Rumani and Neelam. It has a medium vigor with a regular bearing habit
Ratna: It’s a hybrid between Neelam and Alphonso mangoes. Therefore, it’s a regular bearer and free of spongy tissue.
Arka Anmol is a semi-vigorous fruit variety from the cross between Alphonsus and Janardan Pasanda. However, it is a regular bearing and free of spongy tissues.
Agro Climatic Condition For Mango Cultivation
Mango thrives best in warm, humid conditions. Temperatures between 25 and 28 degrees Celsius and relative humidity levels of 80 percent are optimal for growing mangoes. In cooler areas, the trees may take longer to reach maturity. Cool temperatures can also delay the ripening process.
Most of mangoes thrive in places with good rainfall (75 to 375 centimeters per year). But the distribution of rainfall is more important than its quantity. Rainfall during the flowering period adversely affects the fruit set.
Fog and cloudy weather during the flowering period from November to February also results in the poor setting of the fruit and favors pest attacks and disease.
Suitable Soil For Mango Farming
Mangoes grow well on a wide variety of soil types, including lateritic, alluvium, sandy loam, sandy, and even in low-fertility soils. They grow best when they’re given plenty of water and nutrients.
Read: What soil testing is important for agriculture?
Mango trees prefer soil types that are loamy, alluvium, well-drained, aerating, and deep; they need a pH between 5.5 and 7.5; and they don’t like extremely sandy, shallow, rocky, waterlogging, heavy texturing, and alkaline or calcium-rich soils.
Basic Cultivation Steps for Mango Farming
Soil Preparation
Sterilize the ground in both physical and chemical ways. Physical control measures include treatment with heat and sunlight. Chemical control measures include the application of herbicides and fungicides.
During soil solarisation, the incoming solar radiation passes through the transparent plastic sheet.
Soils help plants absorb water and nutrients from the air through their roots. They also help kill off some types of bacteria and fungi that cause disease.
Propagation
There are several ways to propagate mango trees. You can choose one method depending on the purpose of propagating.
For example, if you want to grow new plants from seeds, you can plant them directly. If you want to propagate by cuttings, you can take cuttings from mature trees.
Planting
You can grow crops at different spacings depending on the type of soil and climate conditions. For example, you can plant dwarf hybrid Amrapali seeds at closer spacings than normal varieties.
Besides adding fertilizer, watering, and staking, you should also provide some shade for the young trees and stakes for them to grow straight. In the first few growing seasons, you should provide some protection from direct sunlight.
Training & Pruning
Mango trees normally require very little or no pruning. But during their early stages of growth, they need some sort of pruning to train them properly.
Irrigation
The amount and frequency of irrigation depend on the type of soil and prevailing climatic condition. Never irrigates during the monsoon period unless there are long spells without rain.
During the first year, when the plant has a shallow rooting system, you must water it every two to three days in the dry seasons.
Manuring
Mango trees take up nutrients from their soil environment. Therefore, they can grow well in poor soils. However, managing them efficiently requires replenishing the nutrients used up by them during their life cycle.
Harvesting the fruit and using it for human consumption also depletes nutrients from the soil. Natural nutrient loss occurs when water moves through the soil and carries away some of the nutrients.
Inter Cropping
You can grow intercrop plants such as vegetables, legumes, short-duration, dwarf fruit trees like papaya, guavas, peaches, plums, etc. But, you must depend on the climatic conditions of the regions. You must pay attention to the soil and nutrient requirements of the crop separately.
Rejuvenation
Mango tree growers usually notice a decrease in productivity after they reach about 45 years of age. To improve their yields, they need to prune the branches so that the light gets through to the lower leaves.
Plant Protection
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You should definitely grow cash crops too.
Harvesting & Yield In Mango Farming
You can usually get between 150-225 marketable fruit trees from one plant each year. Harvesting ripe green fruit with a stalk length of up to 10 cm prevents sap burning and unwanted spots on the fruit.
You can determine when mangoes are ripe by looking at their color. When they turn from greenish white to creamy yellow, they’re ready for consumption.
After grading the fruit, they’re packed into CFB containers.
For export, you should wrap each piece individually in the plastic film so that they do not bruise before being packed into boxes. The government of India has set up special agricultural export zones. These zones help to encourage the commercial production of fruits such as mangos.
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