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A 45-minute drive from the city ofKannur in north Kerala is a mango paradise. The two villages of Kuttiattoor andManiyoor are blessed with mango trees so fecund that each year thousands oftonnes are harvested between March and May. A single tree can yield betweenthree and eight quintals, which is three to four times more than the averageproduce of a mango tree elsewhere in the country.The two villages comprise theKuttiattoor panchayat. ‘Kuttiattoor’ means mango and the village and panchayatare named after the fruit. There are 7,000 households here. Bringing themangoes down safely is challenging and expert harvesters are known to charge asmuch as Rs 15,000 a day.Nobody knows precisely how manymangoes the trees here yield and what their value is. “But even by modestestimates, Kuttiattoor probably produces 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes of mangoes,”says V.O. Prabhakaran, a local farmer and a retired agricultural officer. “Ifwe calculate at the average consumer price of Rs 40 per kg, Kuttiattoorproduces an impressive Rs 16 to Rs 20 crore worth of mangoes very year.”This should make Kuttiattoor a veryrich panchayat. But, in reality, farmers here earn much less. Most householdshand the trees over to traders for as little as 20 per cent of the market valuepaid upfront. According to local lore, a gentlemanfrom a Nambiar household brought five mango saplings from the king ofNeeleswaram. Two established households, Kavu Illam and Chakothth Tharavad,were the first to plant them.The saplings flourished and beganyielding a good crop. The mango variety was named the Nambiar manga (mango). Inthose days, growing fruit trees was more or less the prerogative of Brahminfamilies. After land reforms took place in Kerala, other communities acquiredland and became interested in growing mangoes. The Nambiar mango became popularin a particular area. To identify its geographical spread, the Nambiar mangowas renamed the Kuttiattoor mango. This variety has unique features that makeit eligible for a Geographical Indication (GI). Taste of its ownThe Kuttiattoor mango might not beable to rival the famed Alphonso in taste but it is not inferior either. It hasa thin skin, is fibrous and moderately sweet in taste.The mango season in Kuttiattoorbegins in March and ends in May. The fruit is marketed in nearby towns andcities like Thaliparamb, Thalasseri, Badagara and Kannur. When the seasonbegins, the mango costs Rs 100 per kg. During the peak season, the price of theKuttiattoor mango drops to Rs 50 or even Rs 30 per kg. “We growers end up getting apaltry 20 per cent of the actual value of our mangoes,” says B. Krishnan,Secretary of the Kuttiattoor Mango Growers Committee. “It is the pattakkars orthe crop contractors who dictate terms. More than 100 such middlemen operatehere.”Since trees laden with fruit are achallenge to harvest, the tree owner has to hire a harvester. “So most homesgive their trees on crop contract for a small amount of money,” says Krishnan.A tree that was given on a crop contract of Rs 20,000 a decade ago is stilltalked about. It has become a local legend.Gopalan Nambiar, 70, of Veshalahamlet, has 40 Kuttiattoor mango trees, around 30-40 years old, on his twoacres. He says yields are lower this year because of unseasonal rain. “The cropcontractors pay me Rs 10,000 when yields are good. This year the mango crop isnot that good. I guess I will get Rs 2,000,” he says. But his total mango cropthis year won’t be less than two tonnes.“Out of all the mangoes I haveeaten,” says V.V. Jobi, “the ones from Veshala are the most superior.”Most crop contractors come fromother parts of Kerala. But some are locals. Abdulla Koya, 58, runs a small shopin Kuttiattoor but he also works as a crop contractor. He says large treesyield around half a tonne of fruit. After ripening the mangoes, he transportsthem to nearby markets in Thalassery, Kannur and Kozhikode.“Until last year, we were ripeningthe fruit with calcium carbide. The advantage is that the fruit ripens quicklyand there is no wastage. If we use the traditional method of ripening bycovering the mangoes with paddy, it takes a week. In the process, about halfthe fruit gets spoiled,” he complains.Mohanan, a local farmer, has beendoubling as a pattakar for the past 35 years. A tree needs to be harvested fouror five times a season, he says. Mohanan has an advantage since he knows how toharvest the fruit himself. Yet, at times, he too has to hire an additionalhand. He collects, on an average, around eight tonnes of fruit per day. “I earnaround Rs 30,000 per tonne. The peak season lasts 60 days.”Strangely, mango trees thrive herethough the topsoil is not more than six inches thick and the subsoil is hard. Afive-year-old Kuttiattoor tree flourishes in front of the panchayat office.Gopalan’s biggest tree has grown to a height of 20 metres and covers about 120square feet. Locals recall an old tree that had occupied about 0.05 acres.A. Prabhakaran, a retired teacherand social worker, recalls giving one of his trees on a crop contract of Rs15,000 about 20 years ago. E.K. Chandrahasan sold four of his trees, that wereperhaps 200 years old, for Rs 2 lakh four years ago. “This is nothing,” hesays, smiling. “The oldest tree that we had in Chathoth Tharavad — it mighthave been 300 years old — fetched us nearly Rs 1 lakh decades ago. Of course,we didn’t use the money for ourselves. We donated it to a temple.”The Kuttiattoor mango ispoly-embryonic. The seedling possesses mother characters. In fact, grafting istotally unknown here. There are no nurseries. By and large, this variety is analternate bearer. Some trees yield fruit on different branches with a one-yeargap in between, thus ensuring fruit every year.Villagers in Kuttiattoor continue toplant new seedlings. But they do nothing after that. They don’t irrigate theyoung tree or fertilise it. Neither do they raise orchards or plantsystematically. Pruning and plant protection measures don’t cross their minds.As a result, most large trees show signs of neglect. Some are blighted withparasites.“A house without a mango tree isvery rare in our panchayat,” says Prabhakaran. “If we get a fair price for ourfruit, these trees are enough to take care of a family’s annualexpenditure.” The Kuttiattoor trees are deeply appreciated by thevillagers. “This mango tree is a great asset of ours,” says Chandrahasan.“Which other variety can provide you with so much fruit without asking forattention or expensive inputs?” But for villagers to get the rightprice for their mangoes is not easy. Perhaps due to lack of local leadership orvote-bank politics, Kuttiattoor is a neglected panchayat. It has very littleinfrastructure though it is close to Kannur, the district’s capital.“I think this is the only panchayatin Kerala that doesn’t even have an ATM,” grumbled an official who has beentransferred here from south Kerala.Kuttiattoor has few parallels in thecountry. Almost every household in this panchayat produces a sackful of mangoesevery year in a compact area.But due to shortage of labour, theabsence of a farmer-friendly supply chain, a marketing set-up and so on, untillast year a major part of the harvest was going waste.For four years Chandrahasan tried tosell his mangoes directly. None of the other tree owners have tried it. He used to take his best fruit to Mananthavady in a jeep. “The advantage ofselling there is that they don’t grade our fruit into first-class andsecond-class,” he says. “I was getting paid around Rs 40 per kg.”He says harvesters have become lessefficient over the years. “Earlier, they used to harvest four to six quintals aday. Now they only collect two quintals.”This year, the problem seemed toworsen. The crop contractors lost interest because the Kerala government camedown heavily on chemical ripening of fruit with calcium carbide after the mediahighlighted the issue. A lot of mangoes remained unsold.To turn the situation to theiradvantage, last year the Kuttiattoor Mango Growers Committee decided to sellchemical-free mangoes directly to consumers. They informed all mango treeowners that the committee itself would procure a small amount of the fruit atRs 30 per kg. The farmers began bringing freshly harvested mangoes to thecommittee’s office. The fruit was ripened the traditional way.So now their mangoes had twoadvantages over other varieties. One, they were organically grown and, second,they were not chemically ripened. The committee offered the fruit at Rs 35 perkg to consumers. Luckily, TV channels did a story and thereby spread the word.Consumers from nearby urban areas made a beeline to Kuttiattoor and thecommittee managed to sell seven tonnes of ripe mangoes. But, above the earning,the experience instilled confidence among villagers. They realised they couldsell their fruit directly.This year the committee began work abit earlier. Krishnan said they procured 15 tonnes of unripe mangoes. Afterripening, they were left with 10 tonnes as the rest had got spoiled. But theirtotal turnover was Rs 5 lakh.A second initiative also holds outhope for farmers. Three years ago, a food processing unit was started by theKannur Krishi Vijnana Kendra (KVK) with financial help from the RashtriyaKrishi Vikas Yojana. The Kuttiattoor Mango Growers Committee is running theunit which produces squash, jam and pickle from Kuttiattoor mangoes.The unit, located on a hillock, hasample land of around 1.5 acres, and an open well with plenty of water. What itlacks is building space and storage facilities. Its total processing capacity is15 tonnes, which is very little when compared to the whopping quantity ofwastage. The products don’t have a robust presence in local marketseither. Kuttiattoor mango trees have nowspread to the neighbouring panchayats of Mayyil, Kolenchery, Kodali and Munderitoo. “Our mango seedlings have spread all over Kerala,” says Prabhakaran.“Officials who are posted to Kannur invariably take some mango saplings to grownear their homes.”Yet the Kuttiattoor mango is notwell-known in Kerala. The popular variety in the state is the Muthalamada mangothat is the first to arrive in the market. But its reputation has taken abeating in recent years because of widespread publicity about the toxicinsecticides that are sprayed on it.Another move that could make the Kuttiattoormango better known is the GI. Kerala’s agricultural department is taking allthe necessary steps to make this happen. Help at handA team of scientists from the IndianInstitute of Horticulture Research (IIHR) visited Kuttiattoor in the secondweek of April after they heard of the plight of the Kuttiattoor mango farmers.Dr M.R. Dinesh, Principal Scientist and Head, Division of Fruit Crops, said thefruit had good potential. It could be processed or eaten fresh.Since the Kuttiattoor mango is harvestedright at the start of the season, it has two advantages. Most mango-processingunits lie idle in April, waiting for raw material to come in. Linkages can bemade with such factories. The mangoes can be quickly sold there. Thanks to theKuttiattoor mango, processing factories can begin work one-and-a-half monthsearlier.Second, since the Kuttiattoor mangoharvests early, it escapes the possibility of being attacked by fruit flies.Another advantage these mangoes haveis that they are all more or less of the same size in a bunch. “In otherbunch-bearing varieties like Amrapali, if there are six to eight fruits in abunch, five will be smaller and two larger. But with Kuttiattoor, all thefruits in a bunch are more or less the same size.”Dr Dinesh also says steps need to betaken to prevent the fruit from rotting during ripening. Currently,nearly half the crop goes waste.He says the mangoes face threeproblems: fruit flies, the nut-weevil menace and anthracnose disease. Hesuggested mango farmers hang fruit fly traps on their trees in February whenthe fruit begins to mature. These can be bought from KVK.“Keeping the area clean is also agood preventive measure. Where the tree is close to the home and floors arekept clean, we noticed that there is no fruit fly attack.”To prevent nut weevils fromattacking mangoes, he suggested farmers spray a small amount of acephate, achemical insecticide, twice — once when the mangoes are the size of a lime andthe second after a fortnight. The following year, the tree won’t need to besprayed if the nut weevil population has been controlled. He also suggested a natural methodto control nut weevils. He pointed out that old leaves and small pieces of drywood get accumulated at the point from where the tree develops branches. Ifthis area is cleaned, nut weevils will not proliferate.To control anthracnose, Dr Dineshrecommends immersing mangoes in warm water of about 45 degrees Celsius withsalt for 10 minutes immediately after harvesting. Five per cent salt has to beadded to the water. It is also suggested that thefarmers form a federation to market their mangoes. The federation could packthe mangoes in two-kg cardboard boxes, branded ‘Kuttiattoor mangoes’, and setup a stall on the National Highway which is about an hour from Kuttiattoor.IIHR sources said such a strategyhad worked in Chittoor. Earlier, farmers in Chittoor would sell their fruit,grown from seedlings, for a low price under the label of ‘local’. Under aUNEP-sponsored project, IIHR encouraged the farmers to market their fruit in amore organised way. They packed their fruit in corrugated cardboard boxes witha label brandishing the project’s name and the UNEP seal.“They sold 2.5-kg boxes for Rs80. The farmers are very happy now.”The scientists suggested thatKuttiattoor farmers try out an inexpensive ripening chamber that IIHR hasdeveloped. It can ripen mangoes in about five to six days without usingchemicals. If the Kuttiattoor community gearsup for action and begins planning straightaway, it can profit from the nextfruiting season. Things have started moving under the leadership of theKuttiattoor Mango Growers Committee. “We are prepared to put in all effortbecause, with better prices, these mangoes can be our number one money-spinner,”says C. Sujatha, president of the panchayat.The panchayat is putting together a‘high-powered committee’ to chalk out an action plan for mango developmentunder the guidance of IIHR. That committee will discuss the possibilities ofroping in other agencies and whether a second committee is required to preparea time-bound plan.On 7 June a seminar will be held atwhich IIHR scientists will explain the remedial measures needed in detail. Theywill display their ripening chamber and advise the committee on where they canaccess funds to begin a Mango Growers’ Federation.Once farmers begin earning more fromtheir fruit, they will be keen to learn more. If the Kuttiattoor panchayatgrabs this opportunity, in the next few years they could transform theirdestiny. Mango producers could earn Rs 30 per kg for their fruit.Not less than Rs 15 crore would flowinto Kuttiattoor, making it prosperous. In the long run, the villagers willalso have to consider grafting this mango variety to contain its height, pruningit and so on. But before that, the moot questionis whether the community will rise to the occasion and take full advantage oftheir wonderful genetic heritage to usher in a brighter future. Contact IIHR – (080) 28466353 ; 2846 6471, [email protected]: U. Janardhanan - 94006 76548, [email protected] -- Kind Regards.....IN THE SERVICE OF LORD KRISHNA Ashok D. DandeLandscape artist and Specialist in Landscape Gardens; Nandanwan, Nagali Taleigao, Goa 403002.....IN THE SERVICE OF LORD KRISHNA India (It,s 45 yrs since we went ..........GREEN) Tel: ++91 9822 589738 (Cell) Res: ++91 832 2464839 Gospel of Nature...Love for Nature...Love for creatures...Love for the whole...Nature is very peaceful. She disturbs only those who disturb themselves...but she teaches wisdom to those who admire and appreciate her beauty. Think about the Environment before printing this e-mail! __._,_.___ Posted by: Ashok Dande <[email protected]> | Reply via web post | • | Reply to sender | • | Reply to group | • | Start a New Topic | • | Messages in this topic (1) | [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Send news and updates to [email protected] Our website: http://bsg.goa-india.org/ If you like this list, please introduce it to more people. Free to join. 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