A new variety of mango in Bangladesh

The Regional Horticulture Research Centre (mango research centre) in Chapainawabganj has successsfuly grown a new variety of mango, BARI Mango-13, after 15 years of research.

The National Seed Board under the agriculture ministry recently gave its approval for Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) to introduce the variety.

Haridash Chandra Mohonto, chief scientific officer at Chapainawabganj regional horticulture centre, said, “This is the first time that a hybrid mango has been included in the list of BARI mangoes. This is good news for mango lovers and growers. We will be able to provide the saplings of this variety to our mango farmers in the next planting season.”

According to the research centre’s chief scientific officer Jamir Uddin, who was involved in the hybridisation and research procedures, said the mango has been invented by cloning Bari mango-3, Amrapali, and mango palmar collected from Florida, US. He said the production of the mango had been monitored for 10 years.

The mango is medium sized and is a late season cultivar. The average weight is 220g and can be harvested from late July to early August. It is fibreless and the flesh is deep orange when ripe. The skin turns maroon and the fruit has an average 21 per cent sweetness when 74.67 per cent is edible on an average.