Noorjahan mangoes having roots in Afghanistan being cultivated in Madhya Pradesh's Alirajpur

INDORE: While 'Alphonso' might have the tag of the 'king of mangoes', 'Noorjahan' mangoes of Alirajpur,

Madhya Pradesh

certainly takes the cake owing to its humongous size.

Around 250 km away from Indore,

Noorjahan mangoes

which are claimed to have their roots from

Afghanistan

are cultivated only in the Katthiwada region of Alirajpur district in Madhya Pradesh.

"We have two mother trees and have grafted three tree here in Katthiwada and primarily cultivate Noorjahan mangoes. We get around 200-300 mangoes every year," cultivator,

Shivraj Singh

told TOI.

Singh's family has been cultivating 'Noorjahan' since 1965 and he is the third generation into the cultivation of the fruit which is highly in demand.
Besides the mangoes, they also cultivate rice and oranges.

Ranging between one kilogram to maximum 3.5 kgs, it sells at a rate of Rs 1000 per piece. The yield has been good this year, but, the lockdown has had impacted the sales of these mangoes. Now that the lockdown has been curbed, they are expecting more takers.

While the fruit is available only in Katthiwada, his brother, Roop Singh who has a nursery in Sewagram at Wardha, Maharashtra wherein he sells grafted Noorjahan saplings too which costs around Rs 1300 per sapling and Rs 1600 per three feet sapling in case of courier.

"We get a huge demand and we sell over 1000 saplings per year. Due to the pandemic last year, we could only sell around 500 saplings, this year, we have already sold 200 saplings. I sell saplings of as many as 400 varieties of mangoes including Noorjahan," cultivator and nursery owner, Roop Singh told TOI.

The order for fruit starts from the month of April whereas the demand of saplings continue throughout the year, especially from May-June, he added.

As per the two brothers, their grandfather had bought two saplings from Valsaad's plant nursery in the year 1965. As Noorjahan was quite famous then, their grandfather ended up christening the yielded fruit with her name.

The two brothers haven't yet begun with the export of these mangoes as they've not even been able to cater to the enormous demands that comes from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

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