Jubilee Post News & Views
Jubilee News Desk
Mallika has grown in popularity in Lucknow’s posh Gomti Nagar area and in other pockets too of the state capital.
Not so surprisingly, Mallika fans are willing to pay three times the price of Dashehari. At the end of the Dashehari season, the mango varieties enjoyed in Lucknow are Chausa and Lucknow Safeda, but in 2021, you can also find smiling Mallika fruits in the fruit shops.
Despite the fact that the Central Mango Research Station (now CISH) in Lucknow introduced Mallika in the 1970s, the fruits were not available in the market.
The main reason is the small number of plants grown in Malihabad’s mango orchards and surrounding areas. Growers gradually realised that Mallika is an excellent variety in terms of taste, appearance, and eating qualities, as well as keeping quality, said a press statement from the office of Shailendra Rajan, the director ICAR-Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture.
South Indian mango Neelum is the mother parent of hybrid Mallika and her male parent is Dashehari. The fruit size is quite large, with some fruits weighing more than 600 grammes. When harvested early, the variety is sour, but when fully matured, the pulp is firm with an excellent balance of sugar and acid. The fruit is orangish yellow in colour, with an attractive dark orange pulp and a very thin stone.
Because most people were unaware of the high quality of this variety’s fruits, there were few takers. It is a late variety that has proven to be a high yielder in the majority of the mango growing areas of the country. It has become commercial in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu because fruits are sold at a very high price in the Bengaluru market, said the press statement.
According to a vendor in Gomti Nagar, people who know about Mallika want the fruits of the same variety. They become fond of Mallika after they have enjoyed it. Variety lovers are willing to pay up to a hundred rupees for a kilogramme, whereas the vendor must struggle to dispose of this variety in other parts of the city. In many places, vendors mislead people by selling Mallika under the guise of Chausa and other varieties.
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It took several decades for a mango variety to become popular. For example, in the case of Mallika, it took about 40 years for people to learn about its excellent fruit quality. Mallika is in high demand in various parts of the state right now and Japanese also relish it.
A properly ripened Mallika fruit can outperform any of the top varieties such as Alfonso, Dashehari, and Chausa. However, picking the fruit from the tree at the proper time is critical; otherwise, the true flavour of the variety cannot be enjoyed.
Mango vendors’ habits are changing in the city as the demand for different varieties grows. They sell Chausa, Lucknow Safeda, and many other varieties at the same time. A few years ago, the storey was different, and at the end of the mango season, you could only find Chausa and Lucknow Safeda.
