Tremendous potential for development of Horticulture sector: Radha Mohan

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh on March 23, 2017, said there is tremendous potential for development of the horticulture sector and there is need to ensure focused attention for harnessing available potential by scaling up ongoing interventions. Singh stated this at the inter-session meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, in New Delhi.

The strategy for making Horticulture sector a key driver in transforming India’s agrarian landscape by ensuring convergence between research institutions, state horticulture missions, livelihood programmes and entrepreneurship was also discussed during the meeting, according to a PIB release. The Agriculture Minister stated that India is currently producing about 286 million tonnes of horticulture produce from an area of about 24.4 million hectare accounting for about 13 % of the total world production of fruits and leads the world in the production of mango, banana, papaya, sapota, pomegranate, acid lime and aonla.

Singh informed the session that India is the second largest producer of vegetables after China and is a leader in production of vegetables like peas and okra.  Besides, India occupies the second position in production of brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower and onion and third in potato and tomato in the world. Special thrust is being given for production of vegetables under protected cultivation under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), said the PIB release.

He said that there are numerous success stories, for example, banana in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, guava and tomato in Chhatisgarh, pomegranate and mango in Gujarat, pineapple in Nagaland, kiwi in Arunachal and orchids in Sikkim, off season vegetables in Uttarakhand, etc. The challenge is to complement the sector with food processing, cold-chain agro logistics, agri-business, input related services, agricultural lending, insurance and value chain related services, he said.