Best fruit forward: Check out a unique ‘mango museum’ in Gujarat

Guests can walk through an orchard made up of 300 varieties. Expect rare breeds from Japan, Thailand and West Bengal, as well as lessons in climate resilience.

There is an unusual kind of orchard in Bhalchhel village, about 3 km from the town of Sasan Gir.

Samples of the red ivory, strawberry, banana and King of Chakapat mangoes grown on the Jariyas’ 12-acre farm.

Beside the Hiran River, amid bee-eaters and sunbirds, rows of trees hold a confounding array of mangoes. On one, kesari aams gleam in the sunlight; on another, golden Alphonsos hang heavy. There’s a banana-shaped mango here, an apple-shaped one there. Some taste like pineapples, some like lemons.

Samsudin Jariya and his family call it the mango museum.

A total of 300

Working as a family, Samsudin, his wife Dilshad Jariya and their two sons, Sumeet and Anil Jariya have boosted the number of varieties to 300, and the number of trees to 3,500.

Then came a turning point. In 2008, a friend and fellow mango farmer in Sasan Gir, Nathabhai Bhatu, introduced him to high-density orchard farming. In this method, dwarf trees pruned to heights of no more than 8 ft to 10 ft produce fruit. Where traditional farming methods allow for 50 to 70 mango trees per acre, high-density farming allows the same plot to accommodate 500.

By 2016, Jariya had a flourishing high-density farm in place: 650 trees, across 25 varieties, on his 12 acres. Then came the pandemic, and another turning point.

In 2021, his son Sumeet Jariya, who has a Master’s degree in biotechnology, quit his job with a food-processing company in Angola and returned home. He knew his father had long been interested in diversifying the mango crop. Together, they decided to see how far they could take that plan.

Working as a family, Samsudin, his wife Dilshad Jariya and their two sons, Sumeet and Anil Jariya have boosted the number of varieties to 300, and the number of trees to 3,500.

The family’s newest addition has been Thailand’s Katimon mango, which bears fruit in March and April (like most mango trees) but also in September and October, when mangoes are determinedly off-season in India. Such varieties will boost their profits year-round, says Sumeet, 31.

Three years ago, the family added the famous Japanese Miyazaki too. Expensive to grow in Japan, where this tree requires temperature-controlled greenhouses, it is easier to cultivate in India’s year-round heat. While the best of these fruits are auctioned at astronomical rates in Japan, the Jariyas plan to sell their Miyazakis in hampers of two and three, priced at ₹500 or ₹1,000, when fruiting begins in another three years.

The museum isn’t just fun, games and rare fruit either.

In times of uncertain climate — with intensifying storms, unseasonal rain and heat waves hurting every stage of mango production, from pollination to flowering and fruiting — the more varieties one can experiment with, the better, says Samsudin, now 60.

“Museums like ours can help farmers decide which varieties are suitable for their land,” Sumeet adds. “New techniques such as high-density farming and the use of climate-smart varieties can help small-holdings farmers gain more profits from their plots.”

As part of this effort, the Jariya mango museum offers courses in exotic mango farming and nursery management, and currently takes on eight to 10 undergraduate horticulture students a year, offering them on-site training and a chance to get their hands dirty.

The Anil Farmhouse hotel, meanwhile, now consists of 25 rooms, with guided walks on offer for all guests.

The family’s next step? “An assorted exotic-mangoes box,” says Sumeet Jariya, grinning, “like a box of chocolates.” You’ll never know what you’re gonna get.