It’s the season for this delectable fruit, touted as the
sweetest in the world. Aside from being sweet, it is best known for its
yellow-orange and succulent flesh, which is a temptation that is too hard to
resist even among diabetics. This is the Philippine mango.
With a domestic production worth P41.6 billion, the mangoes
that we savor in abundance in summer support about 2.5 million farmers. Also,
its gross value added contribution to agriculture is P12.5 billion with exports
valued at US$31 million for its fresh fruits and US$29.7 million for its
processed products.
Filipinos are so much into mango (both as consumer and
producer) that the country ranked as the 7th and 6th biggest producer and
exporter, respectively, in the world.
The science behind
Science and technology plays a big role in the success of
the mango industry. This was the key message of Bureau of Plant
Industry-National Mango Research and Development
Center (BPI-NMRDC) OIC
Chief Yondre J. Yonder in his presentation for the mango techno forum held
during the recently concluded “19th Manggahan Festival”.
In the forum, sponsored by the Philippine Agriculture,
Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) and its
regional partner, the Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and
Development Consortium, Yonder enumerated some of the research and development
(R&D) works on mango done by government institutions.
“A protocol for extended hot water dip treatment (EHWD) was
already established”, Yonder started. He explained that EHWD is an accepted
method used to disinfest mango fruits against fruit flies. The treatment made
it possible for the country to export the fruit to China.
Yonder also mentioned that the national survey on mango seed
and pulp weevils was conducted. Results of the survey showed the absence of
mango seed weevil and mango pulp weevil (MPW) except in Palawan
where there is still the incidence of MPW.
He also reported that a system for planting of
tissue-cultured plantlets to soil media was developed along with a protocol for
the regeneration of plantlets.
“To maintain the mangoes’ quality, irradiation protocol on
postharvest was also established”, he continued. Irradiation is an alternative
to vapor heat treatment for disinfecting mango seed and pulp weevil. The
technology is rapid, safe, and convenient though costly.
Methods to determine maturity of mango fruits were
established. The code of Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) was also developed.
Yonder added that low bark grafting on mango is now made possible
by the BPI-Davao National Crop Research and Development Center.
BPI-NMRDC, for its part, is maintaining the germplasm on
mango with the continuous collection, evaluation, characterization, and
documentation of different mango accessions.
New initiative
In a related development, PCAARRD and the Department of
Science and Technology are funding a program titled “Advancing the Philippine
mango industry: Production of export-quality mangoes”.
The program aims to expand the supply of safe and
export-quality mangoes with the adoption of Integrated Crop Management and
Postharvest Quality Management practices, and GAP and Quality Assurance
guidelines (Project 2). It also aims to develop pre- and postharvest
tools/equipment and facilities for mango production and processing in Region11
(Project 1).
Aside from Region 11, the Program’s Project 2 will be
implemented in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6.
(Butch S. Pagcaliwagan, S&T Media Service)
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