It all began at Plant Utsav 2002, held for the first time at Garcia de Orta Municipal Garden, in Panjim, instead of the Forest Nursery at Campal, Panjim, where it was held since its start in 1998.
A suggestion to hold a fruit festival came from Ashok Mogu Naik, the then chairman of Panjim Municipal Council (PMC) and later the first mayor at the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP).
Trees were close to his heart. To the Botanical Society of Goa (BSG) members, trees are life. The focus has shifted from pure botany to agriculture ever since 1998, when the BSG got involved in modifying the syllabus to start a vocational subject in horticulture in Goa.
The BSG, CCP, the Goa Directorate of Agriculture, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research-Goa Research Centre (ICAR-Goa then, ICAR-CCARI now), the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR of ICAR, Bangalore), the University of Agricultural Sciences (Dharwar, Karnataka), and the Regional Fruit Research Station (RFRS-Vengurla) of the Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeet (Dapoli, Maharashtra) joined hands to bring the freshest fruits in myriad shapes, colours, flavours and aromas, all at one place and without a roof.
The fest, Konkan Fruit Fest (KFF), was open-to-sky and open to all.
Veterans like Jaisinghrao Rane, Prabhakar Keni and Shrihari Subrai Naik Kurade brought tens of fruit varieties to the show.
They included amla (Phyllanthes emblica), rajamla (Phyllanthes acidus) kokum (Garcinia indica), bilimbi (Averrhoa bilimbi), karmal (Averrhoa carambola), guava (Psidium guajava), chickoo (Manilkara achras), papaya (Carica papaya) and jackfruit.
The other fruits were (Artocarpus heterofolia), pineapple (Ananas comosus), cashew (Anacardium occidentale), mango (Mangifera indica), karvanda (Carissa carandas), jamun (Syzygium jambolana), watery rose apples (Syzygium aquem) and the not-so-common sour sop (Anona muricata), mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), Otambi (Artocarpus lakoocha), godkam (Terminalia bellirica), egg fruit (Pouteria campechiana) Velvet Apple (Diospyrus kauki) and West Indian cherry (Malphigia glabra).
There were 198 entries from 79 competitors from all over Goa, thanks largely to the then Director of Agriculture, Wamanrao M Khade, my Zonal Agriculture Officer at Bicholim in the Orwellian year, 1984.
Among the entries were the fruits and wines of Carlos Figueiredo, which have caught the attention of people across Goa twenty years later.
Pilar Nature Farm, then managed by Fr Inacio Almeida, sfx, brought 17 entries and was the competitor with the largest number of entries. This distinction has been held by Laban D’Souza of Kirbhat, Nuvem, since the KFF was first held in Margao in 2013.
Prabhakar Keni from Bali, Cuncolim, exhibited the cashew selections, Balli-1 and Balli-2 – that were later released by ICAR as Goa-1 – made from his mother tree.
ICAR-Goa (now ICAR-CCARI) showcased fruits of 35 Goan mango varieties from the collection planted by Dr P A Matthew. His book Mangoes of Goan Origin, published by ICAR speaks for him.
The mango tree collection is a living testimony to his work for a dozen years in Goa before he returned to the land of spices at Kozhikode, Kerala.
More than just a leisurely treat, the fruits were the subject of three different competitions – eating, carving and dressing.
A suggestion to hold a fruit festival came from Ashok Mogu Naik, the then chairman of Panjim Municipal Council (PMC) and later the first mayor at the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP).
Mangoes have been removed from the fruit-eating competition because of their exorbitant price now, and replaced with the more affordable bananas and watermelons. The competition still attracts competitors of all ages and sizes.
The fruits are weighed before, and the remains weighed after, eating. Viva la biggest difference in weight.
The conservation of fruit diversity and entrepreneurship development in GenNext has always been the focus of the festival that provides an informal platform for interaction between the common man, scientists, officials, nutritionists, chefs, growers and processors of fruits.
With greater consumer awareness of fruits and fruit products, a large number of exhibitors becoming cottage-scale entrepreneurs, a ripple effect of having pop-up and community markets across Goa, the selection and release of fruit varieties in Goa and GenNext taking charge of organising the event since May 2022, the Konkan Fruit Fest has truly achieved its primary objectives.
(The author is the former Chairman of the GCCI Agriculture Committee, CEO of Planter's Choice Pvt Ltd, Additional Director of OFAI and Garden Superintendent of Goa University, and has edited 18 books for Goa & Konkan)
