Horticulture for food, nutritional and socio-economic security in India

Abstract

India is bestowed with several agro-ecological regions which provides ample opportunities to grow a variety of horticultural crops which form a significant part of total agricultural produce in the country comprising fruits, vegetables, root and tuber crops, flowers and other ornamentals, medicinal and aromatic plants, spices, condiments, plantation crops and mushrooms. India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. Only 17% of arable land is being utilized for the cultivation of horticultural crops (27.2 million ha) and produced 329.86 million tonnes in 2020-21 with 2.05% higher than the previous year and 8.5% higher than the previous five years. The total production of fruit was 102.76 million MT with an average productivity of 14.51 MT/ha and vegetable production was 196.27 million MT with an average productivity of 17.11 MT/ha.