Reliance's mango orchard starts bearing fruit

Reliance Industries' orchard in Jamnagar, with 1,03,000 mango trees planted six years back, has started producing 37 varieties of the King of Fruit.

The company also plans to sell guava, pomegranate, chickoo and other fruits to be grown at the 200 hectare site.

Branded 'RIL Mango' and packed by Jamnagar Farms Pvt Ltd, a group company, the fruit is being test marketed among Reliance employees in Mumbai, Jamnagar, Patalganga, Vadodara, Hazira in Surat and other centres.

"We have planted 103 varieties of mango at the orchard. Apart from major Indian varieties such as Kesar, Alphonso, Ratna, Sindhu, Neelam and Amrapali, we also have foreign ones such as Tomy Atkins and Kent from Florida, US, and Lily, Keit and Maya from Israel. Five of the 37 varieties are being produced for the first time in the country," a company spokesperson said.

Situated close to the group's mega refinery, the orchard has been named Dhirubhai Ambani Lakhi Baugh.

The spokesperson said the group's founder Dhirubhai Ambani had dreamt of an orchard like the one Mughal emperor Akbar had created with 100,000 mango trees -- also called Lakhi Baug -- at Darbhanga in Bihar.

Reliance uses drip irrigation in this water-scarce area to grow the fruit. In 2004, the orchard yielded 346 tonnes of mango.

The company is targeting a production of 400 tonnes plus this calendar year, 1,835 tonnes by 2010 and 3,562 tonnes by 2016.

The orchard is a high-density plantation, having over 700 mango trees per hectare.