India, July 20 -- This National Mango Day on July 22 presents one of Indian agriculture's greatest paradoxes. Americans are obsessively tracking Indian mango shipments, paying premium prices for Alphonso and Banganapalli varieties, and driving hundreds of kilometres to specialty stores to secure a box of Indian mangoes. Yet thousands of Indian mango farmers are struggling to recover even their basic cultivation costs.

The world loves Indian mangoes. Indian mango farmers are struggling to survive.

Few agricultural products command the kind of emotional, cultural, and economic appeal that Indian mangoes do. From Wall Street Journal and Financial Times features documenting the annual frenzy for Indian mangoes in the US to Japanese and inte...