Horticulture has Potential to boost overall farm sector with over 7% growth for the last 5 years (NHM reveiew)

Horticulture has seen significant jump in area, production and export with help from the National Horticulture Mission in the last five years. This came out in the meeting of the General Council of the Mission, which met under the Chairmanship of Shri Sharad Pawar, Agriculture Minister. The Council took stock of the implementation of Scheme over the years. The interventions under the Mission have helped in increasing the production of horticultural commodities from 166.9 million tonnes in 2004-05 to 226.9 million tonnes by 2009-10, registering a growth rate of about seven percent per year. There has been consistent increase in the exports of horticultural produce, which has reached the level of Rs. 13,423.76 crore during 2009-10.

With the implementation of the Scheme in the last five years, an area of 16.57 lakh hectares has been brought under horticultural crops. About 2.78 lakh ha of senile orchards have been rejuvenated. Organic farming has been taken up in 1.37 lakh ha. Besides, 2.47 lakh honey bee colonies along with hives have been distributed to farmers for enhancing productivity through cross pollination.

High priority has been accorded under the Horticulture Mission to promoting protected cultivation, particularly for taking up cultivation of vegetables under green houses and shade net houses in the peri-urban areas. Besides, protected cultivation of flowers is gaining momentum in various parts of the country.

Collaborative efforts have been made with the Government of Israel for getting state-of-the-art technology for cultivation of fruits and vegetables by creating Centres of Excellence. One such Centre of Excellence for Vegetables has been commissioned at Karnal, Haryana in January, 2011 with Mission’s support to the tune of Rs.6.00 crore.
Infrastructure facilities such as 2192 nurseries, 309 number of scientific infrastructure viz. Leaf Tissue Analysis Lab, Disease Forecasting Units, Bio Control Labs and Plant Health Clinics have been established in the public and private sector with the active participation of ICAR Institutes, State Agriculture Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK).

Under post harvest management, 1091 pack houses, 285 cold storage units, 4 controlled Atmosphere (CA) stores, 16 refrigerated vans and 264 mobile/ primary processing units have been set up. Moreover, 172 markets, including 9 wholesale markets, have been established for facilitating marketing of horticulture produce. Two Terminal Markets, one at Patna and the other at Erode, Tamil Nadu have been approved for setting up under the Public Private Partnership mode during the current year. These markets will have facilities to ensure transparency in operation and better price realization by the farmers.
Rs. 8809 crore has been earmarked for the Mission during the Eleventh Plan, out of which Rs. 2728 has been released till 2009-10. A provision of Rs. 986 crore has been earmarked for the current year (2010-11) against which an amount of Rs. 779.20 crore has been released so far.

The Mission is being implemented in 371 identified districts, in eighteen States and three UTs covering about 60 major horticultural crops. The Scheme guidelines have been revised recently to provide better incentives to the farmers and entrepreneurs involved in the development of horticulture. Some of the key areas identified for action by the Mission include evolving a robust mechanism to mitigate the adverse impact of climate change, strengthening of cold chain and market infrastructure and better delivery mechanism. It was noted by the General Council that with high potential for growth, the horticulture sector is expected to play a significant role in boosting the overall growth rate in the farm sector.