What is Sadabahar Mango and why Anand Mahindra is ready to support the Kota farmer who grows it

The mango season is around the corner and soon the fruit market will be flooded with the aroma of the King of Fruits. Now imagine if it were not just a seasonal fruit but a fruit you could enjoy 365 days a year? Yes, you read it right. It is possible, and one farmer in India is trying to make it happen and is now being supported by Anand Mahindra too. Scroll down to read the details.This story is of Shree Kishan Suman, a farmer from a village near Kota who initially worked with wheat and rice farming and then grew a rose plant that bloomed in seven colors. Later, he moved to experiment with mango grafting. He worked for more than a decade refining an unusual mango tree that flowers across multiple seasons and has now developed a new variety called 'Sadabahar,' which can bear fruit up to three times a year.This rare variety of mango is said to have an Alphonso-like taste, is low in fiber and has impressed even researchers. It is reported that the saplings of this mango variety are slowly reaching Rashtrapati Bhavan as well. In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter) even Anand Mahindra was surprised to know about this mango and wrote, "It this variety proves scalable, it open up real possibilities: for farmers' incomes, for supply chains and even for how we experience something as as seasonal and sacred as the mango.In his post he mentioned, "It’s a general principle that as economies grow, agriculture must shrink in importance. But perhaps what declines is not agriculture itself… only our imagination of it."He further added, "What strikes me is not just the outcome, but the method. This is true entrepreneurship: resilience in the face of uncertainty, a science-based approach, and the patience to let nature reveal its secrets. We most often look for startups in our engineering campuses. We should be looking just as closely at our farms."The most encouraging part of his post was his concluding line where he mentioned,"And if he ever chooses to scale his venture, I’d be more than willing to back him."While Suman's experimentation and resilience to bring more to the world is an example of hard work and patience, Anand Mahindra's applause and support towards the farmer community truly reflects what leadership should ideally navigate and help others grow.For this evergreen variety developed, Suman was conferred the NIF’s 9th National Grassroots Innovation and Traditional Knowledge Award and subsequently recognised at various other fora. Through various channels, NIF has been making efforts towards dissemination of the information about the variety amongst farmers’ networks, government organisations, state agriculture departments, NGOs, etc.For the unversed, the word “mango” comes from the Portuguese manga, which is probably derived from the Malayalam manga. It is believed that the Portuguese introduced vegetative propagation methods in India during the 15th century when they established trading outposts along the western coast of India.Over the centuries, this exchange of techniques helped expand the diversity of mango cultivation across the country. Local growers began experimenting with grafting and selection, gradually developing new varieties suited to different climates, soils and regional tastes.The innovative attributes of the variety have been verified by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), India, an autonomous institution of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. NIF also facilitated an on-site evaluation of the variety through ICAR - Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore, and a field testing at SKN Agriculture University, Jobner (Jaipur), Rajasthan.