Growth and performance of horticulture in India

Abstract

India, with its wide variability of climate and soil, is highly favourable for growing a large range of horticultural crops such as\rfruits; vegetables, potato, tropical tuber crops and mushroom; ornamental crops; medicinal and aromatic plants, spices and\rplantation crops like coconut, greennut, cashew, cocoa, tea, coffee and rubber. The changing scenario encourages private\rinvestment, to go for hi-tech horticulture with micro-propagation, protected cultivation, drip irrigation, fertigation and integrated\rnutrient and pest management, besides making use of latest post harvest measures particularly in the case of perishable\rcommodities. As a result, horticulture crop production has moved from rural confines to commercial ventures and has\rattracted youth since it has proved to be intellectually satisfying and economically rewarding. As a result, the changing\rscenario of horticulture is studied through following objectives: To study the importance of horticulture and allied factors, To\rstudy the compound growth rates of area production and productivity of the horticultural crops. The secondary data was\rcollected from the horticulture statistical data base, NHM, NEW DELHI. The data for 13 years (2001-2013) comprised the area\rproduction and productivity of horticultural crops.Simple descriptive analysis was carried out to analyse the importance and\rsignificant factors in it. Compound growth rate was calculated to study the performance of the crops with changing scenario.Fruit\rproduction increased five times i.e., from 5.5 million tonnes in 195253 to 28.63 million tonnes in 1991-92 and further nine times\rto 54.04 million tonnes by 2013. The growth rate in mango crop shows positive trend I area, i.e., 5.32 and 4.78 for production.\rThe productivity is decreasing due to market behaviour. The growth rate in onion crop shows positive trend for area and\rproduction i.e., 3.86, 5.51, respectively. The productivity is increasing due to market behaviour and more technology innovation.\rThe growth rate in spices crop shows positive trend for production and productivity i.e., 4.74 and 5.72, respectively. The area\ris decreasing due to market behaviour and aggregate deviations. India’s exported of fruits and vegetables has found to be 12\rcrores to 13240 crores still at the global level our share is only around 1.4 per cent.