New Delhi: Leaders from ruling and opposition parties appeared together at the 18th Bharat Mango Festival organised by Kanpur MP Ramesh Awasthi, in a rare show of bipartisan participation at an agricultural event. Organisers said more than 18 Union ministers and over 200 MPs attended, alongside former President Ram Nath Kovind. Delhi LG VK Saxena inaugurated the festival.
The festival started 18 years ago as Awasthi’s effort to give mango growers a national forum for showcasing diversity and accessing research, storage, and buyers. It has since expanded into a national platform with 350+ varieties, structured farmer sessions, and an annual farmer felicitation. The dais typically features senior ministers and cross-party MPs; this year was no exception.
Ministers included BL Verma, Ramdas Athawale, Shripad Naik, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Bhagirath Choudhary, S P Singh Baghel, Virendra Kumar, Savitri Thakur, Prataprao Jadhav, Rajbhushan Chaudhary, Harsh Malhotra, Token Sahu, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Ramnath Thakur, Ajay Tamta, Durga Das, Nimuben Patel, and Anurag Thakur. Eminent personalities from cinema, literature, education, art, science, law, journalism, and spirituality participated, giving the event a broad public character.
Speakers from multiple parties pointed to a common set of issues: farmer recognition, technology transfer, post-harvest storage, export markets, and price realisation. A farmer felicitation ceremony brought more than 50 cultivators on stage, with several noted for organic and bio-fertiliser innovation and for building export linkages. Farmers from UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, and West Bengal were among those recognised.
The exhibition displayed 350-plus mango varieties—Dasheri, Chausa, Alphonso, Banganpalli, Kesar, Safeda, Fazli, Neelam, and Mallika—while the ‘Modi Mango’ drew steady curiosity. Technical sessions featured horticulture researchers and agricultural university experts in open Q&As with growers. A millet-focused community lunch in the official schedule aligned with the national Shree Anna campaign, and became a shared talking point for MPs across parties on nutrition and climate resilience.
Cultural programming included performances by poet Kumar Vishwas, singer Ankit Tiwari, poet Kavita Tiwari, and actor Arbaaz Khan. Letters from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath praising the event’s role in promoting agricultural diversity and farmer empowerment were shared from the stage. Awasthi said the aim is to keep farmer issues at the centre of national conversation and bring growers, policymakers, and experts together on the same stage, with discussions extending to sustainable practices and international trade opportunities.