Growth in acreage under horticulture crops outpaces foodgrains: report

Indicating a shift from foodgrain to horticulture in the past five years, the area under horticulture rose by 18 per cent, against expansion of only 5 per cent in area under foodgrains, according to horticulture statistics compiled and released by the Agriculture Ministry for the first time. The Horticulture Board brings out annual statistics every year.

The shift from foodgrain to horticulture (fruits, vegetables, flowers, aromatic spices and plantation crops, such as tea and coffee) set in since 2012-13 when horticultural production at 268.9 million tonnes (mt) surpassed foodgrain output at 257.1 mt, according to the handbook.

“Over the last decade, the area under horticulture grew by about 2.7 per cent per annum and annual production increased by 7 per cent,” says the 435-page Horticultural Statistics at a Glance-2015, published by Oxford University Press, and released by Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh here on Thursday.

Production of horticulture crops, according to the book, was 283.5 mt from an area of 24.2 million hectares in 2013-14, with the highest annual production growth of 9.5 per cent recorded by fruits – especially citrus ones – at 10.48 per cent. Maharashtra recorded the highest fruit output at 134.6 mt.

The area under vegetables during 2013-14 was estimated at 9.4 million hectares with production of 162.9 mt. West Bengal recorded 23,045 thousand tonnes of output.

With regard to flowers, the highest production of loose flowers was in Tamil Nadu at 343.65 thousand tonnes.

Stating that the statistics will help in formulating future policies, Agriculture Secretary Siraj Hussain said in his remarks that “generation and dissemination of quality data can also help in averting frequent situation of excesses or shortages and exploitation of such situations by middlemen and speculators.”

The Ministry said it had also started field work to assess area and production of various crops through remote sensing and sample surveys and had already completed data collection, field work and analysis for onion, potato, tomato and chilli for limited districts in major producing States.

To study and possibly emulate horticultural practices followed by water-deficient Israel, Agriculture Minster Radha Mohan Singh, along with three members of Parliament, will be visiting that country from January 9-13. Those accompanying him include, Biju Janata Dal’s Bhartruhari Mahtab, Samajwadi Party’s Neeraj Shekhar and BJP’s Arjun Ram Meghwal, and Ministry officials, Singh said.