Contestants gorge on mangoes to win

LUCKNOW: A mango-eating competition was organized on the third day of a global conference on mangoes on Thursday. A contestant from Meerut, Ashok Kumar emerged the winner among men and Shruti Singh from Lucknow was the winner in the female category.
A global conference on 'Augmenting production and utilization of mango: biotic and abiotic stresses' is being organised by Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (CISH) and the Society for Subtropical Horticulture.The conference has seen lot of research findings being presented by scientists. Besides, as many as 27 government and private organizations are participating in the mango exhibition.
On Thursday, speakers talked about issues like pesticide residue management in mango. No pesticides should be used on mango crop prior to harvest time to avoid carry-over of pesticides in the harvested fruits, said one of the speakers. A K Mishra, project coordinator (subtropical fruits) discussed new diseases of mango, both of known and unknown etiology. He said that shoulder browning and tear staining have emerged as major problem of mango crop in recent years. On the other hand, Om Prakash, consultant in Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation, New Delhi, discussed about post-harvest disease management in mango.