BY MUHAMMAD LUQMAN
A HORTICULTURE farm in Southern Pakistan province of Sindh has claimed to have developed three new varieties of mango that can be taken by diabetics due to surprisingly low content of sugar.
“We have made modifications in the existing mango varieties that has sugar content as low as4.6 percent,” says Ghulam Sarwar Panhwar, the owner of the farm in District Tando Allahyar , the home to Sindhri and other major mango varieties in Southern Pakistan.
Pakistan produces 1.9 million metric tons of mangoes annually, thus ranking sixth in the world, followed by India, China, Thailand, Indonesia and Mexico. There are two dozens of mango varieties, notably, Anwar Ratual, Dasheri, Langra, Saroli, Sindhri, Totapari, and others.
But due to high content of sugar , mango, also called the king of fruits, is generally not consumed by the diabetics , who constitute almost eight percent of Pakistan’s 220 million population.
Last year, Pakistan exported 130,000 metric tons of mangoes to the Middle East, Europe, the US, Japan, Australia and other countries
According to Ghulam Sarwar Panhwar, the M H Panhwar Farms conducted research and scientifically modified mangoes for five years. The new mango varieties have been named Sonaro, Glenn and Keitt and are available in the local market.
“The Keitt variety has the lowest sugar level up to 4.7 percent, while Sonaro and Glenn have sugar levels up to 5.6 percent and six percent respectively.”
Availability of sugar-free mangoes is a relief for diabetic people because most calories in mangoes come from sugar.
Ghulam Sarwar said that his uncle, the founder of the farm, M.H. Panhwar had been conferred the Sitara-e-Imtiaz medal by Pakistan government for his research related to fruits, including mangoes and bananas.
“After his death, I continued his work and carried out modifications after importing different genres of mangoes to test their growth in this atmosphere and soil,” he said.
Sarwar explained, “This project is being run on a personal basis and we are not taking any assistance from the government departments. I just want to introduce these varieties on the national and international levels. We think about national interests but not [using this project] for gaining profits for us,” he said.
