At the recent annual South African Mango Growers’ Association (SAMGA) symposium, the Golden Mango award was given to four persons who’ve made a significant contribution to the South African mango industry. The recipients were Dr Danielle Le Lagadec, Johann du Preez and Jaco Fivaz, who between them have served for sixteen years as chair of SAMGA, as well as Theuns Botha of Lapland Farm, who developed a chemical measure against mango malformation, a fungal disease widespread worldwide. The product, called Lima, is widely in use in the South African mango industry today and in the process of registration elsewhere in the world. It has reduced the incidence of flower malformation in some orchards from 70% or 80% to as low as 10%, and without Lima, as current SAMGA chairperson Pieter Buys noted at the awards ceremony, there might today well have been cattle walking around in derelict mango orchards.
Publication date: 8/10/2018
Author: Carolize Jansen
Copyright: www.freshplaza.com
