MIRPURKHAS: The three-day annual National Mango and Summer Fruit Festival which was celebrating its golden jubilee this year opened here on Thursday, with 183 varieties of mangoes and a number of other summer fruits on display.

Sindh Minister for Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro who inaugurated the festival said that the country earned Rs39 billion from its mango exports to about 45 countries.

He said that Sindh`s mango, particularly that of Mirpurkhas, was the most popular fruit within the country as well as abroad.

Mango growers, especially 76 producers of the fruit, had created opportunities for others and enabled exporters to send their mango varieties to international markets.

He stressed the need for use of modern technology in fruits production and trade and said the government was trying to provide more facilities to exporters and growers.

He said that exporters were making efforts to increase the shelf life of mangoes and maintain international standards to enhance export of mangoes and other fruits.

He said the drainage system of LBOD should be repaired immediately to benefit masses while the RBOD had not yet been completed.

Mirpurkhas Deputy Commissioner Rasheed Ahmed Zardari said the administration had used up all its energies to make the festival a success and for this purpose it had planned various recreation programmes, family festival and sports competitions to be held alongside the exhibition.

Haji Umer Bughio, chairman of mango festival management committee, said that growers were putting in all their energies and resources to increase their harvest but they lacked required facilities which they could not procure because of low price they got for their crops.

He demanded the government should accept genuine demands of growers as 80 per cent population of the country was dependent on agriculture sector in one way or the other.