Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
ANNEXURE 15
FRUIT CULTIVATION AND MARKETING IN
INDIA: ISSUES & CHALLENGES
Rajesh Ramakrishnan 1
ABSTRACT
Growth trends in horticulture: Production of fruits and vegetables overtook India’s
foodgrain production by 31 million tonnes in 2014-15. Foodgrain production dropped in
drought years (2002, 2004, 2009, 2014), while horticulture production was unaffected
or continued to grow. India is the world’s highest producer of banana and mango. The
leading fruit-producing states are Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamilnadu,
Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. The productivity of fruit crops has not increased over the
years. Fruits and vegetables are mostly grown by marginal and small farmers (with less
than 2 hectare of land).
Inputs for fruit cultivation: Availability of quality planting material for horticulture is
one of the major hurdles to the growth of this sector. There are no uniform norms across
States for nurseries, tissue culture labs and research. Many of our horticulture farmers
are highly dependent on imported farm chemicals. A large number of farm chemicals
are used for crops for which they are not registered. There is heavy dependence on
imported technology for manufacturing micro‐irrigation systems, fertigation systems, farm
machinery and tools, lab equipment, design of structures for protected cultivation, cold
chain infrastructure, machinery and equipment for pack‐houses, refrigerated transport
system etc.
Post-harvest handling, packaging, transport and storage: Post-harvest losses
range from 6.7 percent in papaya to 15.88 percent in guava. Government strategy has
mainly revolved around promoting capital investment in post-harvest management
(PHM) infrastructure. However, infrastructure development has been generally limited
to high value commodities meant for exports or limited high‐end domestic markets. There
is generally lack of standardization of norms and quality parameters of fruits, including
1
Development professional- natural resources management and livelihoods, Isha volunteer
Indian Rivers
621