Horticulture - Creating India's Agriculture Edge

It is a well-researched and documented fact that the horticulture activity is the most environmentally sustainable farming practice, highly remunerative production activity for small farmers, and produces highly nutritional food for the consumers. Also, the economic growth in the production of vegetables and fruits has far exceeded the growth of other agricultural commodities, and the consumption of horticultural produce continues to accelerate in both domestic and international markets. This growth in demand for horticulture is fueled by affluent urban consumers in developing countries, as well as by consumers in developed countries whose diets are increasingly incorporating greater amounts of horticultural products.

The growth in global demand for horticulture products is also linearly being followed by an increase in the relocation of production from the developed world to the developing world. Many parts of the developing world, especially countries like India, have a relative advantage in the production of horticultural crops by virtue of the high labour-to-land ratio, a large number of agro-climatic zones favourable to the majority of horticulture crops, and last but not least low per capita incomes of farmers due to inherent agro-economic factors especially smaller landholding. Small and marginal farmers can usually earn much higher farm incomes…