Weighing
opportunities
Recent
years have seen a shift towards the cultivation of non-traditional
horticultural crops. India possesses the capacity to capitalise on
this trend, says National Horticulture Board.
Over
the years, horticulture has emerged as an indispensable part of agriculture
in India. It offers a wide range of choices to the farmers for crop
diversification and contributes about 24.5 per cent of the GDP.
India accounts for 10 per cent of the total world production of fruits
and stands second after Brazil. The country is also the second largest
producer of vegetables, after China. It leads in the production of
cauliflower, onion and cabbage and contributes 13.3 per cent to the
total world production of vegetables. India ranks fifth in area and
production of potatoes with 1.28 million ha under cultivation. Uttar
Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar account for nearly 71 per cent of the
area and 76 per cent of the nation’s potato production. Currently,
the total production of mushroom in the country is estimated at 40,000
tonnes. The production of mushrooms, was till recently attributed
largely to the unorganised sector. It has now picked up momentum in
the organised sector. This is mainly attributed to the increased awareness
about the nutritive value of mushrooms amongst consumers and a realisation
of their export potential.
Traditional flowers like marigold, jasmine, tuberose and others cover
more than two-thirds of the area under flowers cultivation. The area
under production for cut flowers exported with the stem has increased
substantially in recent years. A variety of commercial flowers like
orchid, anthurium, lilium, gerbera, and chrysanthemum are also being
cultivated for exports as well as the domestic market.
India is considered to be a treasure house of valuable traditional
and aromatic plant species. Agro-techniques have been developed for
a large number of medicinal and aromatic plants by the Indian Council
of Agriculture Research (ICAR) and several other agricultural universities
under the All India Coordinated Project on Medicinal Aromatic plants.
However, due to the unorganised marketing arrangement, this sector
has not been exploited fully.
India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices and
produces more than 50 different varieties of spices. The major spice
producing states are Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,
West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. The
North Eastern region and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have also been
identified as potential areas for spice cultivation.
Plantation crops like coconut, arecanut, oil palm, cashew, tea, coffee
and rubber are grown over an area of 3.82 million ha. Together they
contribute about Rs 75 billion to the export earnings of the country.
India is the leading producer of coconut, cashew
and arecanut in the world.
Oil palm was introduced as an ornamental crop in 1846. It attained
the status of a commercial plantation crop in 1960 in Kerala and in
1971 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Cocoa is cultivated over an area of 12,402 ha in India. Kerala accounts
for 80 per cent of its production. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are
the other cocoa growing states. Coffee is mainly cultivated in Karnataka,
Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
India is the fourth largest producer of natural rubber in the world.
The country also has the distinction of having the highest average
productivity of rubber per ha in the world. The traditional rubber
growing regions are Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Rubber cultivation has
been successfully introduced in non-traditional areas like Karnataka,
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Maharashtra, Assam, Madhya Pradesh
and Tripura.
contd...
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