Malihabad mango variety named after PM Modi

Lucknow, May 22 : Keeping up the tradition of naming new varieties of mangoes after well-known personalities every year, the mango growers of Malihabad have now named a new variety after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has often revealed his love for the 'king of fruits'.

Malihabad's Upendra Singh said that the new variety of a "desi" mango that has a fat upper part, reminds one of Modi's 56-inch chest remark.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has registered the variety and handed over the registration certificate to Singh.

Technically, this means that no other mango variety can be named as 'Modi' now.

The variety, as per claims, has more pulp than fibre, just like Dussehri, a world-famous mango variety from Lucknow's mango belt, Malihabad.

'Modi' mangoes are mildly sweet unlike other 'desi' mangoes that are mostly overly sweet.

Singh said that he crossed two 'desi' varieties of mango to develop a new one. Desi mangoes are 'tukmi' or seedling varieties that are grown from seeds.

Singh had been working on the new variety since 2019.

In 2021, he presented the variety in mango festival in Lucknow and applied for registration under Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Right Authority (PPVFA).

Singh, however, is not the first to have developed a mango variety after the Prime Minister.

Lucknow's 'mango man', Padma Shri Haji Kalimullah in 2015 had developed a new variety by crossing Kolkata's Husn-e-Aara with Lucknow's Dussehri and named it as 'NaMo'.

In April this year, Ashok Chaudhary, who is also known as 'mango man' of Bhagalpur, had developed Modi-3 varieties of mangoes, after having already developed Modi-1 and Modi-2 varieties.