Annual Report 2009-2010 - Department of Agriculture & Co-operation

Annual Report 2009-2010
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13.5 India is the second largest producer of
vegetables after China and is a leader in the
production of peas. Besides, India occupies the
second position in the production of brinjal,
cabbage, cauliflower and onion and third in
potato and tomato in the world. Vegetables that
are produced in abundance are potato, tomato,
brinjal, okra, cucurbits etc.
13.6 India has made noticeable advancement
in the production of flowers, particularly cut
flowers, which have a high potential for exports.
Floriculture during 2008-09 covered an area of
0.17 million hectares with a production of 0.98
million metric tonnes of loose and 11,362 million
numbers of cut flowers.
13.7 India is the largest producer, consumer
and exporter of spices and spice products. The
total production of spices during 2008-09 was 4.14
million metric tonnes from an area of 2.6 million
hectare. The total production of plantation crops
during 2008-09 has been 11.33 million metric
tonnes from an area of 3.20 million hectare.
13.8 In terms of bio-diversity, India is
considered a treasure house of valuable
medicinal and aromatic plants, which provide raw
material for formulation of indigenous medicines
apart from exports. The Government of India has
identified and documented over 9,500 plant
species considering their importance in the
pharmaceutical industry. Of these, about 65
plants have huge and consistent demand in
world trade.
13.9 The development of horticulture in the
country is mainly through developmental
programmes of the Department of Agriculture &
Cooperation. The Schemes under implementation
include (i) National Horticulture
Mission (NHM), (ii) Technology Mission on
Integrated Development of Horticulture in the
North Eastern and Himalayan States (TMNE),
Micro Irrigation, National Bamboo Mission,
Schemes of the National Horticulture Board
(NHB) and Integrated Development of Coconut,
including the Technology Mission on Coconut
coordinated by the Coconut Development Board
(CDB). Besides, a Central Institute of Horticulture
(CIH) is functioning at Nagaland for providing
technology & HRD support to the horticulture
sector in the North-Eastern states.
13.10 National Horticulture Mission (NHM): The
Department of Agriculture and Cooperation,
Ministry of Agriculture, has launched NHM, a
centrally sponsored scheme, during the Tenth
Plan, with effect from 2005-06, for the holistic
development of the horticulture sector, duly
ensuring horizontal and vertical linkages, with the
active participation of all stakeholders. All the
states, and three UTs of Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, Puducherry, and Lakshadweep, are
covered under the Mission, except for the eight
North Eastern states including Sikkim and the
states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh,
and Uttarakhand, which have been covered
under the Technology Mission for Integrated
Development of Horticulture in the North Eastern
States (TMNE).
13.11 The NHM was launched during 2005-06
with the objective of providing holistic growth
to the horticulture sector through an area-based,
regionally differentiated strategy. The supply of
quality planting material through nurseries and
tissue culture units, production and productivity
improvement programmes, technology
promotion, extension, post-harvest
management, and marketing, in consonance
with the comparative advantages of each state/
region and their diverse agro-climatic conditions,
are the major programmes of the scheme.
13.12 Physical Progress: A summary detail of
the progress achieved is given in table 13.1 :