By MELPHA M. ABELLO
February 17, 2010, 4:05pm
Manila Bulletin

A mango produced by a lady farmer from Iligan City has recently been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s heaviest mango.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap named Socorro Bodiongan from Iligan City in Northern Mindanao who set the new Guinness World Record for producing the heaviest mango at 3.435 kilograms, breaking the 2.4-kg mango recorded from Hawaii.
Bodiongan harvested the mango fruit last August 25, 2009 from the mango tree at the family’s front yard in Tubod, Lanao del Norte. It was of the Florida Keitt variety which the Bodiongans planted in 1992. It started bearing fruits in 1996.
GWR requires under its Specific Guidelines for Fruits and Vegetables released in September 16 last year that a crop can qualify for consideration if it had been entered in a contest.
“Fortunately, Bodiongan was able to enter her mango in the “Pinaka“ contest organized during the Sundayag Festival held in Cagayan de Oro City last August 27,” Yap said. On October 31, 2009, Bodiongan submitted her entry to GWR with the still photographs, videos, notarized statements of witnesses, newspaper clippings, Internet links and printouts of other pieces of corroborating evidence on the weighing, measuring, and contest winning of her 3.5-kg mango.
Bodiongan said that the Records Management Team of GWR officially informed her last December 19 that her entry had won. And on January 13, 2010, she received from GWR the official certificate for having “The Heaviest Mango at 3.435 kg (7.57 lbs.)”.
“We are proud of Ms. Bodiongan’s achievement and hope that her feat will inspire other stakeholders in agriculture sector to likewise attain excellence in food production,” Yap said. He added that the Department of Agriculture’s goal is not only to increase farm and fisheries production but also to make agriculture a profitable venture for small farmers and fisherfolk by providing them with postharvest facilities and opening up more markets for their produce both here and overseas.