Mani Skaria, the Lime King of Texas, has a new mission: revolutionize India’s citrus industry
The Indian American scientist and entrepreneur introduced pioneering micro-budding technology that accelerates fruit production and increases fruit yield per acre.
Growing up in the 1970s in Amayannor, a small village in Kerala’s Kottayam district in southern India, Mani Skaria aspired to be a civil servant, like many bright students of his generation. However, a teaching job in the Kingdom of Jordan after his master’s degree in botany set him on a serendipitous journey that ultimately established him as a revolutionary figure in Texas’s citrus industry.
Today, Skaria oversees a citrus orchard spanning hundreds of acres in Hargill, Texas, spearheading changes in the Lone Star State’s citrus industry through innovative crop production and protection. U.S. Citrus Company, which he founded in Hargill more than a decade ago, runs the largest operation of specialty citrus crops in Texas.
His production practices are based on organic principles, respecting mother nature and honoring the next generation of fruit growers.
Hargill is located in the southernmost region of Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, roughly 35 miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border, separated by the Rio Grande River. The region is known for its fertile agricultural land, including citrus orchards, vegetable farms, and sugarcane fields.
Skaria introduced pioneering micro-budding technology, which accelerates fruit production and increases fruit yield per acre, resulting in record-breaking yields in less than half the conventional time. “My innovations and technologies produce citrus fruit quickly and with a higher yield,” he says.
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Skaria is also credited with establishing the clean citrus program in Texas. His decades-long career is marked by high-impact contributions, such as his 2010 discovery of Sweet Orange Scab (SOS), the first in the nation, and the discovery of the Diaprepes root weevil in 2000, which had a $15 billion impact on Texas agriculture as per the Texas Department of Agriculture.
From Jordan to the US and back
In 1977, Skaria moved to Jordan for a lecturer’s job after obtaining his master’s degree from University College in Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala. Four years into his role, he came to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in plant pathology at Purdue University in Indiana.
After graduating from Purdue in 1984, Skaria got an opportunity to return to Jordan.
“I got a very interesting job to go back to Jordan. I was appointed by the U.S. Agency for International Development on a citrus improvement project,” he says. Through Washington State University, he secured a job as an agricultural expert to help Jordan’s citrus industry, working with the country’s Ministry of Agriculture.
“This was a U.S. State Department project, courtesy of His Majesty King Hussein,” recalls Skaria. “I was not a U.S. citizen back then and did not know citrus, but the host country strongly endorsed my application. I received full support and exceptions from the US government, and the university sent me to various U.S. universities to provide all the necessary practical training on citrus.”
Skaria says the job gave him “an opportunity to be in the trenches of citrus in a faraway place with limited opportunities to understand and gain knowledge in the Middle East.”
In 1987, Skaria came back to the United States to work with the apple industry at Washington State University.
The next year, he was persuaded to join Texas A&M (then Texas A&I University) by his mentor during the Jordan days, John E. Fucik, then a professor at the university’s Kingsville campus. “Dr. Fucik and his wife insisted we stay in their house,” Skaria says.
Two rough starts: Personal and professional
Skaria joined A&M-Kingsville’s Citrus Center in Weslaco, near the Mexican border, as a plant pathologist in 1988. His early days in the Rio Grande Valley were challenging. Severe asthma led him to consider a job elsewhere, but a course at Harvard University on “human health in a built environment” led to a family business focused on indoor air quality, and university teaching as asked by the Texas A&M University System.
“Every cloud has a silver lining,” Skaria reflects. “My health adversity led to unexpected positive outcomes—complete asthma control and more. That sickness later brought me fame, awards, recognition, and financial security beyond a faculty salary.”
His initial work in Texas revealed issues with the citrus nursery operations.
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“One of the first things I found out after coming to Texas was that almost all nurseries in the state were distributing citrus plants that were not clean,” says Skaria, explaining how he introduced the so-called Clean Citrus program in the state. “My studies showed that all citrus trees sold in commercial nurseries were asymptomatic carriers of pathogens. I referred to it as ‘Typhoid Mary.’”
Sharing his findings with industry leaders was met with resistance, but eventually, his work led to the establishment of a mandatory citrus program in Texas. “In 1997, then-Texas Governor and future U.S. President George W. Bush signed that into law. Today, close to five million citrus trees are produced, and I can see my fingerprint on each citrus tree made in Texas,” says Skaria, whose efforts earned him the moniker of “Father of Clean Citrus” in the state.
The A&M Citrus Center distributes buds under the program.
The US Citrus Company
Skaria started the US Citrus Company in 2012, a year before he retired from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. It took several years to build the infrastructure on about 550 acres of land the company purchased in Hargill.
He built the citrus enterprise through innovations in tree production, planting density, and soil and water conservation.
One of his pioneering innovations was the micro-budding technology for higher-density planting, inspired by a conversation with Fucik about increasing profitability in citrus orchards.
The technology helped US Citrus become the nation’s largest domestic producer of limes and Skaria earn the moniker “Lime King of Texas.”
“We are pioneers in the way we are doing the operation,” Skaria says. “We are growing varieties that do not exist in Texas today. For example, our flagship product is called Persian Lime. It is a green lime used in the food industry and cocktails. A lot of chefs and mixologists use it, and it is very flavorful.”
Squeezing a Persian lime, Skaria says, “It takes about 10 normal limes from the market to make the juice content of one of our limes. That’s a huge difference. The aroma is absolutely amazing.”
Challenges and innovations
After the initial success, the years 2020 and 2021 brought significant challenges with natural disasters causing major damage. However, these disasters led to the development of new products such as Dr. Mani’s Magic Mix Microbials, Pest Protect Pro, and Super Soil, which are now widely used in organic gardening.
Over the years, Skaria’s contributions have been recognized in Texas and other parts of the United States.
In 2010, he received the Outstanding Senior Faculty Teaching Award from the Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
In 2016, the Rio Grande Valley Horticultural Society conferred the Arthur T. Potts Award on him for outstanding horticultural work in the region.
In 2018, he received the South Texas Better Business Bureau Mary G. Moad Ethics Award for “utmost adherence to the ethical aspect of doing business, practicing the principles of corporate social responsibility and human resource development.”
Additionally, Skaria has served in advisory positions to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under both the Trump and Biden administrations, as well as the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Plan for India
Skaria now has a new mission: to revolutionize India’s citrus industry, which he describes with a touch of nostalgia. “India does not have a single five-star gold-standard citrus nursery,” he observes. “Ironically, the citrus industry in India is at the pre-independence standard. And there’s a double irony—India is one of the centers of citrus origin, alongside China.”
The entrepreneur has engaged in discussions with state government officials to explore the introduction of innovative technologies and practices in northern India’s citrus sector. He highlights the challenges faced by small-scale citrus growers, including outdated technologies and limited access to high-quality varieties, which result in low productivity, poor fruit quality, and restricted profitability.
To address these issues, Skaria has devised a plan to establish a top-tier, five-star citrus nursery in northern India. This facility would focus on producing high-quality, grafted citrus trees. “The nursery is projected to generate a minimum of one million trees in the first two years, with an annual production target of one million trees thereafter,” Skaria explains. His goal is to enhance fruit quality, increase yields, and improve the overall profitability of small-scale growers.
The estimated cost for developing this nursery along with four regional centers, and demonstration orchards is $30 million, which includes expenses for establishing the nursery, purchasing 25 acres of land, and setting up the necessary water infrastructure.
“This India project does not aim to generate profit for Mani Skaria,” he says. “Instead, my primary focus is mentoring young individuals as they implement his innovative ideas and products developed in Texas. My role is to guide them in transferring technology and successfully executing projects within the private sector to maximize efficiency.”
Skaria is prepared to move forward with the project, contingent upon receiving support from the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Horticultural Board, entrepreneurs, and the public.
“I’ve achieved similar results for the state of Texas and my company, US Citrus,” Skaria notes. He emphasizes that this initiative aligns with India’s vision of empowering small farmers, promoting sustainable agricultural growth, and improving the quality of life in “Grama Panchayats.”