PUNE: India plans to introduce a system to allow international consumers of Indian mangoes to trace back the fruit to its farm of origin through the internet as part of its efforts to persuade the European Union to lift ban on Indian mangoes.Government agencies are working to put in place ' Mangonet ' — an online traceability system that will register mango growers and exporters and enable importers and supermarkets in the European Union ( EU ) to check complete details of their shipments — on the lines of the successful 'Grapenet'.“The success of Grapenet has encouraged us to replicate the system in mangoes,” said Sudhanshu, deputy general manager of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.The EU had imposed a temporary ban on Alphonso mangoes and four vegetables from India from May 1, stating that it had found fruit fly infestation in the fruit.This impacted exports to the United Kingdom (UK), the second largest export market for Indian mangoes after the UAE. Following the ban, Maharashtra, the largest exporter of mangoes in the country, started using HortiSAP, an IT-based pest surveillance system extensively for mangoes.An EU audit committee visited export facilities in India two months ago, following which, the government agencies and exporters are hopeful that the ban would be lifted next year.“The EU audit committee has seen the sea change in our set up,” said Sudhanshu. Maharashtra's horticulture department has recruited about 70 to 80 agricultural graduates to monitor mango orchards in eight mango-exporting districts in the state for early detection of any pest/disease incidence. They get online advisories from the National Centre for Integrated Pest Management in New Delhi.Field staff use iPads and Skype to communicate regularly with the officials at the state headquarters about the state of crop, pest, diseases and registration of farmers.Govind Hande, chief inspecting authority for phytosanitary certification in Maharashtra, said, “We have provided a list of pesticides with label claim to the mango growers. They will get 'fit for export' certificate only if their samples pass all the tests. If the samples have a problem, the exporters will get alert notice.” Mango exporters are hopeful that the online system will help boost their business.“The Grapenet system gave very good results. As Mangonet will be on similar lines, it will be good for mango exports,” said Kaushal Khakar, CEO at Mumbaibased KB Exports.