APFPIF has appealed to Naidu to establish a mango board

 andhrapradesh | Written by : Suryaa Desk Updated: Fri, Jun 15, 2018, 03:30 PM

The Andhra Pradesh Food Processing Industries Federation (APFPIF) has appealed to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to establish a mango board to make Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) a horticulture hub and to improve the overall rural economy.

In a letter to the Chief Minister on Thursday, APFPIF president Potluri Bhaskara Rao stated that A.P. was the largest mango growing State, which cultivated the fruit in 3,36,956 hectares and achieved a production of 40,43,472 metric tons in 2016-17. Mango was grown extensively in Krishna, Chittoor, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, West Godavari, and Kadapa districts and the most popular varieties were Banginapalli, Rasalu, Totapuri and Manjeera.

Though Andhra Pradesh stood first in mango production in the country, when it comes to yield per acre, it stands fifth due to supply chain constraints, failure to adopt advanced farming technologies and seed quality issues, he observed.

He observed that though the State government has announced setting up of the board in 2015, it made little progress.