Date:12/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/12/stories/2007051202040500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Stall opened at Lalbagh for pesticide-free mangoes

Staff Reporter

POISON-FREE: Narayana Reddy, a farmer who has taken to organic cultivation, with his produce in Bangalore on Friday. — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

BANGALORE: In an effort to encourage farmers adopting organic cultivation to raise mango crop, the Government-aided Jaivik Krishi Society has opened an organic mango sales stall at Lalbagh in the city.

Society's honorary president and Joint Director of Horticulture (Biotechnology) K. Ramakrishnappa told presspersons here on Friday that mangoes produced under organic farming was free of pesticides unlike mangoes produced under conventional method.

At a premium

The society had been selling four varieties of organically produced and ripened mangoes, Mallika, Badami, Sendura and Raspuri, at its sales counter in neatly packed boxes. But the cost of them would be 25 per cent higher than others.

The Government-sponsored Horticultural Producers Cooperative Marketing Society sold the same varieties of the conventionally produced mangoes at Rs. 40, Rs. 50, Rs. 25, and Rs. 40 a kg respectively, he clarified.

Explaining the method adopted in organic farming, Dr. Ramakrishnappa said that paddy straw treatment would help natural ripening.

Artificial ripening

But under the conventional method mangoes were given calcium carbide treatment for obtaining attractive colours and to hasten the process of ripening.

The conventional method adopted for ripening and colouring mangoes was either restricted or banned in several countries.

Although mangoes produced through the questionable method looked attractive, they were not as tasty as organic mangoes and were not free from poisonous arsenic and phosphorous, he added.

Interested may contact Jaivik Krishi Society, Nurserymen Cooperative Society premises, Lalbagh (K.H. Road entrance), ph: 9449669767 or email: jk_ society@rediffmail.com for details.