This story is from June 13, 2021

‘Mango man’ of Bhagalpur comes up with new varieties

‘Mango man’ of Bhagalpur comes up with new varieties
BHAGALPUR: Apart from the juicy Jardalu mangoes, other exceptional, colourful and rich varieties of mangoes developed by Ashok Choudhary, popularly known as ‘Mango Man’, at his farm-cum-research centre at Maheshi-Tilakpur village under Sultanganj block in Bhagalpur district have also caught the attention of people.
Sixty-two-year-old Choudhary, a science and law graduate, had left his job as teacher in a government school long ago and started working for the conservation of about-to-be extinct varieties of mangoes and also developing new varieties since 1992 at his ‘Madhuban Mango Farm’.

While toiling hard for ‘Jardalu’ variety of mangoes, Choudhary developed new varieties of mangoes with the help of ‘grafting technology’, also known as multi-variety propagation. It helped him develop more than 20 varieties of mangoes.
Choudhary said new varieties of mangoes have been developed with the help of ‘Irwin’ and ‘Sensation’ varieties of mango from Florida, USA, and other varieties from across India. “In 28 years, I have developed more than 80 varieties of mangoes of different regions and countries, including 20-25 varieties of colourful mangoes,” he added.
Popular names of the colourful mangoes developed by Choudhary are Lalima, Pratima, Arunima, Navratra, Surya and Bhagalpuri Bambaiya. A fan of PM Narendra Modi, Choudhary has also developed two special varieties of juicy colourful mangoes which have been been christened as Modi I and Modi II.
“Only those new varieties which are exceptional in terms of quality, juiciness, aroma, sweetness and external appearances are used for propagation and commercial farming,” Choudhary said, adding people from Bhagalpur, Banka, Munger, Purnia and other districts visit his farm to have a look at the mango varieties and also carry their saplings to grow them. “I don’t charge anything from anyone in the propagation of colourful varieties of mangoes,” he added.
The Bihar government has been selecting unique variety of Jardalu mangoes, which had got prestigious geographical indication (GI) tag in 2018, from Choudhary’s farm since 2007 to send them to the country’s dignitaries, including the President and the PM.
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