The only thing that makes the sweltering summer heat bearable is the fact that it coincides with the season of the “King of fruits”- mango. For a mango lover like me, the world might be upside down but we need mangoes on the plates. Juicy, Pulpy, refreshing and flavourful in distinct varieties, eating mangoes is almost therapeutic.

If 77 types of mangoes are found in one place, then it should be considered as heaven for mango lovers. One such was organized by Konda Laxman Bapuji s research organization in Medak district’s Sangareddy. Mango farmers from across the country participated in this exhibition. 77 varieties of mangoes like Banginapalli, Dasehara, Mahmood, Manjira, Rose, Royal Special, Amrapali, Asif Pasand, Mallika, Prabhat Shankar, Niluddin, Neelishan, Kalipari, Rangoon Goa, Neel Goa, Kesar, Suvarnarekha, Swarna Jahangir, Ratna etc were exhibited here. Tenneru is also available as it is a unique variety where each fruit weighs around 1.8 kg.

This exhibition was organized as part of a fruit research initiative to retrieve and inform people about the lesser-known mango varieties of the country. Scientist Suchitra said ” This program has been organized to create awareness among the local farmers and common people. We have 467 mango varieties but only 77 varieties were yielded this year and so we showcased only 77 varieties this year. Lesser rains than last year caused the mango trees to yield less.”

She further added, “Farmers also discussed the problems that they face when they cultivate new varieties of mangoes with us. It will be answered by our expert team. Research is being done on mango, guava, custard apple, apricot and dragon fruits. It was organized mainly to increase awareness about the varieties in the field of fruit research. Out of the 426 varieties here, mainly 20 varieties of mango plants are sold in the nursery. Up to five types of mangoes are mostly in demand in the market. If farmers need the other varieties they need to inform the nursery in advance.”

Mango lovers and mango farmers attended this exhibition in numbers and were awestruck to see these many types and varieties of mango at the exhibition.