India: The World's Leading Mango Producer and Cultural Icon

India is the largest producer of mangoes in the world, accounting for nearly 50% of global mango production. The country’s annual mango output is estimated at around 24.7 million tons. This vast production is spread across various states, including Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, where mango cultivation thrives due to favorable climatic and soil conditions. Mangoes hold significant cultural and economic importance in India and are often referred to as the “king of fruits.” Their prominence in Indian agriculture is mirrored by their esteemed place in the country’s culinary traditions and heritage.

Mango cultivation in India dates back to ancient times, with records indicating its domestication around 2000 BC. The fruit has been an integral part of Indian culture for thousands of years, symbolizing prosperity, love, and fertility. The Mughal emperors, particularly Akbar, were known to have an affinity for mangoes, and the fruit was frequently featured in royal gardens and feasts. This historical connection continues today, as mangoes play a prominent role in various festivals, rituals, and offerings.

India’s diverse climate and soil conditions contribute to the growth of numerous mango varieties, each with its own distinctive flavor, color, and texture. Alphonso, often considered the finest variety, is known for its sweetness and rich texture, while Kesar, Dasheri, and Langra are popular for their unique flavors. These varieties are not only consumed as fresh fruits but are also used in a range of culinary applications. Mangoes are integral to Indian cuisine, finding their way into savory dishes like chutneys and curries, as well as sweet treats such as aamras (mango puree) and beverages like mango lassi.

Despite being the largest producer, India exports only a small fraction of its mangoes, with the majority consumed domestically. Mango festivals and local markets celebrate the arrival of the mango season, demonstrating the fruit’s importance in everyday Indian life. India’s dominance in mango production is not just a testament to its agricultural prowess but also to the deep-rooted cultural significance of the fruit in the country’s heritage.
India: The World's Leading Mango Producer and Cultural Icon

Mango in India

The world’s leading grower of mangoes, India produces about 43 percent of the world crop. In 2013 alone India produced 18 million tones of mango. China (4.45 million tons) and Thailand (3.14 million tons) were the next largest producers.

In India there are more than thousand varieties of the mango which belong to one species, Mangifera indica L. The most important varieties including: Alphonso, Banganapalli, Bombay, Bombay Green, Chausa, Dashehari, Fazli, Fernandia, Kesar, Kishen Bhog, Langra, Mallika, Mankurad, Mulgoa, Neelum, Pairi.

Kesar mango from Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Except the hilly regions, mango is cultivated throughout the length an breadth of India up to an elevation of 915 meters from the sea level. The important commercial varieties are maintained in cultivation through vegetative propagation by grafting.

In India, mango product form bulk of the export production among the fruit group and alone accounted for 57.3 percent of the processed fruit production. Among the mango products, pickles account for about 15 percent.
Mango in India

Ancient history of mango

History indicates that Indian mango cultivation is very ancient, of about 4000 years old. Ancient Indians value mango not merely for its sentiment or religious consideration, but they realized its importance in economic and cultural life of the society.

Fa-Hien and Sung-Yun mentioned in their travel notes that the Gautama Buddha was presented with a mango grove by Amradarika in 500 BC as a place for meditation.

The spread of Buddhism assisted in the distribution of mangoes in Southeastern Asia. Buddhist monks took mango plants on voyages to Malaya and eastern Asia in the 4th and 5th centuries BC.

According to German born botanist, Georg Eberhard Rumphius in his Het Amboinsche kruidboek or Herbarium Amboinense (1741), the mango was introduced into certain islands of the Indonesia archipelago within recent times; however, the mango was in cultivation in Java as early as early as AD 900-1100, when the temple at Borobudur was built and faced with carvings of the Buddha in contemplation under a mango tree.

Mangoes were carried to Africa during the 16th century and later found their way aboard Portuguese ships to Brazil in the 1700s.
Ancient history of mango

History of mango in India

Mango cultivation probably originated in India, and it was estimated that mango cultivation to have began at least 4000 years ago.

This fruit is intimately associated with the history of India agriculture and civilization and it enjoys a royal status in the country when compared to the other growing places. Ancient Sanskrit literature described the mango as ‘king of fruits'. Ayurvedic medicine recognizes mangoes as an aphrodisiac and in some ancient n texts it is written that the ripe mango increases sexual energy and stamina.

The first group of people to spill the beans and initiate trade of the fruit were peripatetic Buddhist monks four or five centuries BC. A mango tree is depicted in friezes on the stupa of Bharut, which was constructed around 100 BC.

Available records indicate that the soldiers of Alexandra the Great has come across grove in Indus Valley. 

Traders and monks from India possibly introduced superior elections of mango into South-east Asia: however, vegetative propagation was unknown in India until after the arrival of the Portuguese in Goa in the 15th century.

During Mughal time, Akbar the Great paid the greatest tribute to mango who established an orchard of one lakh mango trees, designated as ‘Lakh-Bagh’ in Darbhanga in erstwhile Bihar State.

The mango tree and fruit are referred in the travelogues of ancient travelers including Huan tsang, Ibn Hankal and Ibn Batuta of which the Chinese traveler Huan-tsang is the first one to bring mango to the notice of the outside world during 632-645 AD.
History of mango in India

Cultivars

Cultivars
The Indian subcontinent is very rich in mango flora. All the mango cultivars originated as superior chance seedlings arising from natural crossing or gene mutation.

Some of these selections were later maintained true to type through sexual propagations.

Almost all these cultivars are monoembryonic types. However, expert compiled a list of 793 mango cultivars all over the world.

Over a frozen poly-embryonic cultivars of mango exist in India, but their fruit quality is inferior and size is also small.

These include Bappakai, Chandrakaran, Goa, Kurukkan, Olour, Bellary, Kasargod, Mazagaon, Nileswar Dwarf, and Salem and are mostly confined to the southern states of India, especially on the west coast.

In addition, polyembryonic cultivars reported from other countries of the world are Cambodiana, Carabao, Cecil, Higgins, Paho, Peach/Apricot, Pico, Sabre, Saigon, Simmonds, Samini and Starwberry.

Of the huge germplasm only a few cultivars which are location specific, are grown commercially.

In the Philippines, Carabao and Pico cultivars in their collection are cultivated. In Hawaii, Pierie and Haden are the most widely grown cultivars, while in Florida it is Tommy Atkins, although several mango cultivars exist in their collection.

The Fijian commercial mango cultivars include Fiji, Peach, Jarra, Parrot and Kerosene.
In India, of the arboreta of approximately a thousand cultivars, only 25 – 40 mango varieties are grown commercially.
Cultivars

Mango Industry

Mango Industry
The mango is one of the oldest cultivated fruit crops, having grown in India for at last 4000 years. It is now widely spread throughout the tropics and subtropics.

At present at least 94 countries produce mangoes. After banana and citrus it is the third most important crops of the topics.

The fruit occupies an important socio economic position in India and south-east Asian countries where it is held in big esteem. Mangoes are consumed fresh, as either green or mature ripe, and processed into numerous products.

World production for 2001 was estimated as 23 million tones. International trade in mangoes is expanding as the fruit gains global recognition. Maximum mango yields (33 tones/ha) are low compared top other tree fruit crops such as apple 112 t/ha, pear 90 t/ha, orange 80 t/ha, peach 56 t/ha and prune 45 t/ha.

The mango industry is plagued by inconsistent production with annual yields fluctuating by up to 150%. The average yield in India is low 8.31 t/ha. This is mainly due to neglect in orchard management and alternate bearing tendency of the commercial cultivars.

The development of regular bearing, better quality and high yielding varieties has greatly helped in sustaining increased production of the crop.

During the last decade there has been a steady increase in mango production as markets have been developed in Europe and North America.

There is now substantial mango production in Central and South America, as well as an expanding industry in regions such as northern Australia, South Africa, and southern USA.
Mango Industry

History of Mango in India and Southeast Asia

History of Mango in India and Southeast Asia
Domestication of mango probably occurred at different times and in different –places on the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Mango cultivated in India can be dated to 4000 BC. Today the mango tree and it fruit remain important Indian religious and cultural symbols.

It has been suggested that the Portuguese, who established trading outposts along the west coast of India in the 15th century, introduced vegetative propagation methods in India and these were used for the first time to clone superior monoembryonic trees. The most important mango cultivars of India e.g., ‘Alphonso,’ ‘Dashehari,’ and ‘Langra,’ are selections that were made at the time of Akbar the Great and have therefore been propagated vegetative for several hundred years.

It is uncertain when cultivation of polyembryonic mangoes originated in Southeast Asia. According to a linguist analysis of the various common names for mango in Southeast Asia, they concluded that polyembryonic mango was probably domesticated independently by several indigenous cultures in that region. The traditional cultivars of South Asia, e.g., ‘Arumanis’ in Indonesia and ‘Carabao’ in the Philippines, continue to be propagated as nucellar seedlings in the region.

The spread of mango from South and Southeast Asia to tropical and subtropical areas of the world came as a result of the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of exploration from the end of the 15th century onward. Generally speaking, the Southeast Asia polyembryonic types were carried across the Pacific Ocean along the Spanish trade routes to Peru, Central America and Mexico. The most important mango cultivar of Mexico today is the polyembryonic ‘Manila.’ The Portuguese carried Indian mango westward to their outposts in Africa, and later to Brazil.
History of Mango in India and Southeast Asia

Introduction of mango to the New World

Introduction of mango to the New World
The earliest known successful introduction of mango to the New World was to Bahia in Brazil about 1700 with plantings elsewhere along the Brazilian coast soon after. Perhaps seed was brought from West Africa; the brief viability of mango seed would have seen enough to withstand fast Trade Wind passage. If introduction was from Indian Ocean, young growing tree must have been transported. Such transported is known to have been attempted before 1700 by British East India ships returning home; in the 1690s young mango trees were deposited by them in Barbados and also taken to England for hothouse culture. Nothing came of this particular effort, but in 1742s the mango was successfully introduced to Barbados from Rio de Janeiro. Soon other direct introductions to the West Indies were made from Indian Ocean.

In the latter half of the 18th century, British and French colonial botanical gardens played a leading role in mango introduction, Mango trees, along with East Indian spice trees, were planted in the St. Vincent botanical garden when it was started in 1766. The famous French botanical gardens on the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Reunion relayed Indian mango cultivars to Martinique and other West Indian colonies form 1760. In 18782, a French ship bound for St. Dominique with mango seedlings form Indian Ocean was captured by the British, and the trees diverted to their botanical garden in St. Vincent and Jamaica. Mango trees were soon growing on sugar plantation and around village on many other West India islands.

Meanwhile, a quite separate introduction had taken place across the pacific from Philippines to Mexico. The date is uncertain, but it was not very early. Mangoes were not grown around Manila until over a century after trade with Mexico began, nor were they grown in Mexico until late in the 18th century when Mexico acquired, under the name of mango of Manila, the unusual apomictic variety grown in the Philippines and Guam.

In the late 19th and the 20th century, there have been innumerable exchanges of mango cultivars in a worldwide network of botanical gardens, experiment stations and commercial growers.
Introduction of mango to the New World

Mango Production in India

Mango Production in India
The mango is a very important cultural and religious symbol in India. It has developed its own important all over the world but its cultivation is nearly as old as Indian civilization. The fruit has been in cultivation in India subcontinent for well over 4000 years and favorite of the kings and common people because of its nutritive value, taste, attractive fragrance and health promoting qualities.

One medium size mango (about 200gm.) provides more than daily requirement of vitamin ‘A’ of an adult and three fourth requirements of vitamin C. Thus it is recognized as one of the best fruit in the world market. Although, at present it is being cultivated commercially in eighty seven countries of the world, no where it has achieve the same premier position as in the Indian subcontinent where it thrives throughout the length and breadth of the country and is considered as the king of all fruits.

Mango is adapted to wide range of soils, climate and altitude and is relatively easy to cultivate. It plays a vital role in supplementing the diet of millions of people throughout the tropics in Africa, America and Asia were local consumption in tremendous.

India is the largest producer of mango in the world accounting for 52.63 percent of total mango production. The mango accounts for 22.06 per cent of total area under fruit and 23.93 per cent of total fruit production in the country. The country produced 10.99 million tones of mangoes from an area of 1.23 million ha.
Mango Production in India

Mangoes as most popular fruit in the world

Mangoes as most popular fruit in the world
Mangoes are consumed worldwide by a factor of three to one over bananas and ten to one over apples. Although mangoes are still considered to be exotic fruits in America, ranking as number 24 of the top 25 fruits consumed in the US, they are considered to be staples in India, South Asia, China, and Latin America.

There are over 2,000 different varieties of mangoes ranging in size from a few ounces to as much as four pounds. One thing they all have in common is their nutritional value; mangoes are a fantastic source of vitamins C and E, niacin, potassium, iron, and beta carotene which converts to vitamin A in the body.

The fresh, ripe mango is a very juicy and sweet fruit with a unique and delicious taste. Some mangoes have a soft and pulpy texture similar to an over-ripe plum, while others have a firmer flesh similar to that of a cantaloupe.

Mangoes are widely used in chutney, fruit bars, cereal products, juices, pies, ice creams, and even milk shakes. Although a little messy due to their high juice content, they can be enjoyed simply by slicing the fruit.

Mangoes are grown throughout the tropics but India is by far the largest producer and consumer of mangoes in the world. In fact, for more than 6,000 years, mango trees have been a status symbol in India. Behind India are other areas within South Asia and parts of Australia. It wasn't until the 19th century that mangoes were introduced to parts of Africa, South America, Hawaii, and Mexico.
Mangoes as most popular fruit in the world

Brief history of mango

The wild mango originated in the foothills of the Himalayas in India and Burma. The first group of people to spill the beans and initiate trade of the fruit were peripatetic Buddhist monks four or five centuries BC.

The mango was cultivated in Java at least as early as AD 900-1100, when the temple at Borobudur was built and faced with carvings of the Buddha in contemplation under a mango tree.

The Chinese traveler Hwen Tsang, who visited India during the first half of the seventh century AD, brought the mango home with him to China.

One theory holds that mangoes first reached Africa by way of Persia in the tenth century. Traders from Portugal introduced mangoes to Brazil in the 1700s and to Barbados in 1742. From there, mangoes then began popping up all over the world.

The cultivation of the fruits began in Mogul, India, where the fruit is still considered sacred and is thought to have aphrodisiac effects. In the 16th century, a special technique employing grafting was developed for propagating the mango.

As early as the sixteenth century, the name ‘mangas’ was used for the mango in the Greek Work, ‘Colloquies on Simples and Drugs of India’. The earliest mentioned of mango tree, Mangifera indica, which means ‘the great fruit bearer’, is found in Hindu scriptures dating back to 4000 BC.

The mango is a member of the Anachardiaceae family which includes poison ivy, cashews, and pistachios. It is also known as manga, mangga, mangot, mangou, and mangue in other parts of the world.

The mango comes in over 50 varieties, ranging in color from greenish, yellowish, to reddish, often tinged with purple, pink, orange-yellow, or red.
Brief history of mango