Kolkata: The Red and Laterite Zone of Paschimanchal area of Bengal has emerged as a good quality Alphonso producer in the country, after Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra.
For the first time in Bengal, a sizeable amount of good quality Alphonso mango has been harvested this year. Alphonso mango is famous worldwide due to its quality and Ratnagiri district is the sole producer of this specific variety of mango, which has immense scope for export.
Three thousand Alphonso saplings have been brought from Dr Balasaheb Konkan Krishi Vidyapith Agriculture University situated at Dapoli in Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra, to maintain genuineness of the variety and three orchards have been set up in Khatra sub-division of Bankura district.
The first commercial harvest has been done this year. Five thousand saplings had been procured in 2017 and planted in Purulia and Jhargram districts, with the aim to make the region one of the Alphonso hubs of the country, through the Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs department. It has been seen in the orchards that more care is needed to nurture the variety, than conventional mango varieties of the region like Amrapali and Mallika.
Alphonso mangoes from Bankura have been analysed in the laboratory at Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya and Scientists have compared the Alphonso of the Red and Laterite belt of Bengal to that of Ratnagiri.
They reported that Alphonso of Bankura have an average 200 gm fruit weight, TSS-200 Brix, 16.00 percent total sugar, 12.6 percent reducing sugar, 0.42 fruit acidity and 78 mg vitamin C per 100 grams of mango pulp, as compared to 195 gm fruit weight, 21.80Brix TSS, 17.5 percent total sugar, 13.5 percent reducing sugar, 0.45 fruit acidity and 106 mg vitamin C in Ratnagiri Alphonso. Prof Sisir Mitra and Prof. Bikash Ghosh of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, who visited the Alphonso sites several times, are excited to see the colour development and quality of the Alphonso mangoes in the region. They are very positive about making the region into an Alphonso hub and said that colour development is far better than Ratnagiri, while quality is almost similar.
"If we go for extensive cultivation of genuine Alphonso in this region, export can be done from Bengal as well," they said.