In order to achieve yield and quality enhancement and increasing Pakistan's share in the global mango market, Mango Research Institute (MRI) Multan is introducing Integrated Crop Management (ICM) to mango growers, which include drip irrigation, nutrition, canopy management and integrated pest management.
Pakistan stands at 6th spot in production of mangoes out of over 70 countries but it is exporting only 3.2 per cent of the total global mango export owing to several issues including poor shelf-life, inadequate infrastructure (processing facilities) and quarantine issues which are different for different importing countries. Interestingly Pakistan is at 9th place in top 10 mango exporting countries while the Netherlands, which does not produce mango, is in the second position. They import mangoes from different countries and then export.
The institute is also working to increase the area under Chaunsa (Samar Bahisht) besides ensuring sustainable improved quality by inducting new innovations in mango production technology. Besides this two new varieties are also being introduced which will enhance the period of mango export from Pakistan thus pushing the exports up.
Punjab has world's largest mango producing cluster spreading over 377 kilometers from Rahim Yar Khan to beyond Khanewal, said Entomologist MRI Abid Hameed Khan while talking to a select group of journalists here on Wednesday.
In irrigation, the institute with the funding of Rs One million from Nestle Pakistan is introducing drip irrigation system which can irrigate one acre of an orchard in 7-8 minutes supplying 14 liters of water to a plant which is sufficient for its whole day need, thus saving around 90 percent of water as compared to old irrigation methods.
Another intervention is canopy management, in which distance between two plants are decreased. He said that in conventional spacing method one acre of land hosts 36-42 plants. However, in High Density and Ultra High-Density farms, the numbers of plants sown are 1300 to 2000 per acre. Two demonstration plants shown to journalists at MRI have plants in the range of 1600 plants to 2000 plants per acre.
Using the pruning technique, the height of these plants are also kept at 7-8 so as management of these trees become easy. This is called Small Tree System (STS), by adopting canopy management and STS, production can be enhanced three times per acre as compared to the traditional system, said Allah Bakhsh, Sustainable Agriculture Specialist, Nestle Pakistan.
MRI Official Abid Hameed Khan said that the mango research institute is working to propagate the commercially attractive varieties of mango through the modern nursery. In this, seeds are grown in plastic pots and then supplied for plantation. He claimed that in traditional nurseries plants are produced in 2.5 to 3 years for sale while in modern nurseries these plants are ready for sale in 12-15 months, free of diseases at a low cost. Nestle Pakistan has also provided financial assistance to MRI for development of five such tunnel nurseries.
He said that liaison of research institutes with all stakeholders and academia and estate developers. He disclosed that DHA Multan was developed on land occupied by mango orchards. He said that now DHA administration was working on a plan to create orchards at different patches in that area.
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