Fruit And VegetableProduction In India

G.L. Kaul

TABLE 1Area (in lakh hectares) and production (in lakh hectares) of horticultural crops

Commodity

1984-851991-921994-951996-97(estimates)

Area

Produ-AreaProdu-AreaProdu-AreaProdu-ction

ctionctionction

Fruits

25.40237.6028.70286.7035.71388.3545.40469.70

Vegetables

58.00608.8051.30585.3059.70686.8261.20808.00

Spices

16.7812.7020.0519.0024.0124.6625.4027.80

Coconut

11.9044.5715.2965.0016.9085.6220.0097.50

Cashew

5.022.115.333.056.354.186.274.50

Arecanut

1.871.922.102.432.352.722.453.05

Total

118.97907.70122.77961.09145.021192.35160.721410.55

Source:

(i) Production Year Book: 1997 - National Horticulture Board

(N) Reports of the Working Group for VIIand IX Plans

people for sedentary occupations. Inthe long run, investments on this some­what innovative approach may provevaluable and cost-effective, benefittingboth the management and the mem­bers of the staff. What with having tosp~nd long hours commuting fromtheir homes to their offices, the staffhave hardly any time (or inclination)for physical training/exercise outsidetheir office hours. In China, for ex­ample, a compulsary 15 minute breakfor physical excercise used to be pro­vided in the offices. Subjects with 8MIexceeding 25 will need special dietaryadvice and guidan<?e in this regard.

If vigorous steps in these direc­tions are instituted, it may be pos­sible to arrest the escalation of theproblem of overweight and with it,the problem of CHD and NIDDMas well. _

References

1. Gopalan, C.: Diet-related chronic diseases in

India: changing trends. NFl Bulletin, 17(3): 1-5,1996.

2. Visweswara, Rao.,eta/: Man in India, 75 (3): 241­249.

3. NNMB report. National Institute of Nutrition, 1996.

4. Prescott-Clarke, P. and Primatesta, P.: Healthsurveys for England 1995. Department of Health,London, HMSO, 1997.

5. Managing the global epidemic of obesity, pre­pared jointly by Philips James and members ofIOTF. WHO consultation on obesity, Geneva, June3-5,1997.

6. McKeigue, P.M., Shah, B. and Marmot, M.G.:Relation of central obesity and insulin resistancewith diabetes prevalence and cardiovascular risk inSouth Asians. Lancet, 337: 382-386, 1991.

7. Bhatnagar, D., Anand, I.S., Durrington, P.N. etal: Coronary risk factors in people from Indiansubcontinent living in west London and theirsiblings in India. Lancet, 345: 405-409, 1995.

8. Barker, D.J.P.: Foetal origins of coronary heartdisease. British Medical Journal, 311 :171-174,1995.

9. Levit, M.D.: Malabsorption of starch, abnormalphenomenon. Gastrenterology, 85: 769-770,1983.

10. Bond, J.H., Currier, B.E., Buchwald, H.and Levitt, M.D.: Colonic conservation ofmalabsorbed carbohydrate. Gastroenterology, 78:444-447,1980.

11. Flourine, B., Florent, C., Jouany, J.P., Thivend,P., Etanchaud, F. and Rambaud, J.C.: Colonicmetabolism of wheat starch in healthy humans:effects on fecal outputs and clinical symptoms.Gastroenterology, 90: 111-119, 1986.

12. Ruppin, H., Bar-Mier, S., Soergel, K.H., Wood,C.M. and Schmitt, M.G.: Absorption of short-chainfatty acids by the colon. Gastroenterology, 78 (6):1500-1507, 1980.

13. Shetty, P.S.: Obesity and physical activity. NFl

Bulletin, 18 (2): 1-5, 1997.

. India enjoys a rich diversity ofhorticultural crops covering largegroups of fruits, vegetables, mush­rooms, flowers, plantation and spices.This is possible because of the agro­climatic variations, enormous bio­diversity, fertile soil, a large cultivablearea and, above all, a long history ofcrop husbandry. This rich culturaldiversity has further contributed tothe planned exploitation of crops andtrees, giving rise to a large variety ofculinary recipes'. The total area un­der these crops in 1994-95 was 14.5million hectares with an annual pro­duction of 119.2 million tonnes (Table1). Fruits and vegetables togethercontributed 90.2 per cent of thisproduction and 65.8 per cent of thetotal area. The annual growth, both inarea and production of these crops,has gained considerable momentumfollowing planned diversification inIndian agriculture, encouraged by thegovernment, from the eighth Five

Year Plan onwards.

Today, India is the largest pro­ducer of fruits in the world, having ashare of over 10 per cent and thesecond largest producer of vegetableswith a global share of over 13 percent. India is the largest producer ofmangoes (over 54 per cent), bananas(over 15 per cent), chillies, gingers,corianders and cauliflowers. There isa vast variety of mangoes, number­ing over 1,000, with several man-madehybrids being added to the list. Indiais home to wild species of mangoes,bananas, several cucurbits, beans,tuber crops, etc. Mushrooms haveemerged as a fast-growing commo­dity both for domestic and overseasmarkets.

Several fruit crops have provedto be most remunerative forreplacing subsistence farming in therainfed, dry land, hilly, arid and coastalagro-eco systems. Diversification in

favour of horticulture crops is drivenby hard economic factors. These cropsare characterised by high productiv­ity per unit area, much higher re­turns, higher potential for employ­ment generation and exports, com­paratively lower requirement of wa­ter, and easy adaptability to adversesoil and wasteland situations. Theinput-output ratio is much higher thanthe field crops. Their role in improv­ing the environment is an added ad­vantage. The biomass available fromthe tree crops is phenomenal, whicheither gets recycled into the soil toadd to its fertility or is amenable toindustrial use for value addition,further enhancing their economicviability.

Trends in favour of such a diver­

sification are sweeping across thecountry. This is evident from the steadyincrease in the share of these cropsin the total net (NCA) and gross culti­vable area (GCA) of the country.

CONTRIBUTION TO THENATIONAL INCOME

According to the National Ac­counts Statistics (1994), the total an­nual value of the horticultural prod­ucts produced in the country in 1993­94 was $6,576 million, with fruits andvegetables together contributing over65 per cent of this value. This valuehas been steadily increasing over thelast three decades.

Fruits and vegetables togethermade a significant contribution to thenational income, which progressedfrom $503 million in 1970-71 to$4,422 million in 1993-94.

ROLE IN HUMAN NUTRITION

Most horticultural crops play animportant role in human nutrition,preventing diseases, and contribut­ing to the nation's development andprosperity. Fruits and vegetables arenot only rich and inexpensive sourcesof carbohydrates but also of mineralsand vitamins, particularly calcium, ironand magnesium, and vitamin A andC, essential for building resistanceagainst diseases. The energy (calo­rific value) produced by one hectareof these crops is much higher thanthat of cereals. Their role in combat­ing the global problem of malnutri­tion, and more so of micronutrientdeficiency, therefore, becomes obvi-

ous. It is indeed stange that whilesuch natural food sources are avail­able for combating micronutrient de­ficiencies within the country, someinternational agencies are trying topromote the use of foreign syntheticdrugs for this purpose.

Under the "horticultural interven­tion, combined with nutrition educa­tion project" in Thailand, regular con­sumption of ivy gourd for three yearsbrought down night blindness in chil­dren from 4.8 per cent in 1989 to 1.4per cent in 19912• According to theICMR, a balanced diet should consti­tute nearly 280 gm of vegetables,including tubers, and 90 gm of fruitsper day. However, the average Indiandiet had only 46 gm of fruits and92 gm of vegetables in the 1980swhich has improved in the last fiveyears, particularly in urban areas dueto highr income levels followingeconomic reforms.

MAJOR CONSTRAINTSLIMITING PRODUCTION

Despite the potential explainedabove, the productivity and quality ofmost of the horticultural crops con­tinues to remain much below the worldaverage. It is only in case of a fewcrops such as grapes, coconut, po­tato and tapioca where Indian yieldsare comparable or even better. Thissituation is contributed to by severalfactors, the main being:

• Old and unproductive plantations:Out of the total area of over 4.5 mil­lion hectares under fruit orchards,more than 40 per cent area is cur­rently under old/senile or diseasedplantations, contributing directly tothe low averages in crop productivity.The area under vegetables includingtuber crops, which are mostly annualor seasonal, is either being plantedwith seed/planting material of geneti­cally inferior quality, or is affected bybiotic or abiotic stresses. The wellknown belts of old mango orchardsin Uttar Pradesh (UP), West Bengaland Andhra Pradesh, old and dis­ease-infested apple orchards in UPhills, declining citrus groves of north­eastern states, etc are some examplesin support of the above statement.This area in most of the places coversprime locations with high economicpotential, yet it is being wasted in theface of shrinking land resources. Unlessthis aspect is attended to with a vig-

6

orous campaign of either uprootingor rejuvenating the trees, this will con­tinue to be a burden on the agricul­tural economy of the country.

• Seed and planting material: Inad­equacy of genuine and disease-freeplanting material of improved variet­ies/cultivars of different crops has amajor role to play in the low produc­tivity and low quality of our crops.Although a large network of seed agen­cies and nurseries have come up inthe country, the availability of seed/planting material of improved variet­ies is inadequate to meet the growingdemands emerging from the expand­ing horticultural enterprise. This isfurther compounded by the absenceof genetically superior material yet tobe developed by the research agen­cies. Today, the entire planting mate­rial for production of cut flowers forexports is imported. There is no ma­jor source of supply of virus-free cit­rus plants. Nurseries involved in apple,banana plantations, etc, supply dis­eased material. Planting of seedlingsinstead of grafts/budlings of fruits iscontinuing in some places in the nameof area expansion under state-sub­sidy programmes. The above situa­tion is mostly a result of ignorance offarmers about the improved varietiesavailable, the know-how about theselection of the right kind, and aboveall, the complete absence of a regu­latory mechanism for certification.

• Post-harvest management: Indiais reported to be losing 20 to 30 percent of the total harvest of fruits andvegetables produced annually, pri­marily because of the lack of ad­equate infrastructure, post-harvesttechnology relevant to our needs,and an effective and trained man­power/system for technology dissemi­nation. This situation is a result oflow priority accorded to this problemin previous years, both by the R&Dand developmental bodies on thisnotion that higher productivity wouldcompensate the losses. This has led­tothe continued adoption of unorganisedmarketing practices, very low share offarmers in the price consumers oftenpay in major consumption centres, fre­quent occurrence of glut situationsforcing distress sale on producers andlow quality, etc, which all combinetogether to snatch away the economicattraction which these crops hold, andkeenness in the producer, especiallythe small farmer, to invest in improved

technologies and better inputs.

Any major investment in improv­ing crop productivity will proveinfructuous in the absence ofinfrastructural facilities such as pre­cooling units, cold storages, refriger­ated transportation, modernised marketplaces, outlets, etc and above all, awell-tested post-harvest handling sys­tem for different products appropri­ate to our conditions. These can becreated by adopting the well-testedconcept of a 'Packing house', involv­ing setting up of a post-harvest han­dling unit in each major productionzone, where farmers bring in theirproduce for cleaning, sorting, grad­ing, packing and pre-cooling, followedby either direct sale or putting in thecold store available at the house it­self. These houses are generally ownedby farmer groups, NGOs or even cor­porate units. A network of these packinghouses are linked to a modernisedwholesale market, which caters tothe domestic and foreign markets.

As per rough estimates, the av­erage cost of setting up such facili­ties comes to about $85.7 per tonneof fruit/vegetable, which means a to­tal investment of about $8571.5million would be required to handleonly 30 per cent of the total produc­tion of over 100 million tonnesobtained in 1994-95. This challengehas to be met in a phased manner,using private investments in a majorway and creating a congenial policyenvironment.

Post-harvest losses at the house­

hold level can be tackled using thelow cost technology of zero energycool chambers developed by the In­dian Agriculture Research Institute(IARI), New Delhi. The chamber is abrick-walled structure with a sand layerin between two walls and a thatched

cover. Regular sprinkling of water, animportant aspect of the technology,helps keep the temperature around25°C in the hot summers even when

the outside temperature is over 40°C.At the same time, the relative humid­ity remains quite high, keeping thefruits and vegetables in a turgid statefor a much longer time than underambient conditions. This is not onlycost-effective but also a simple tech­nique, working on the principle ofevaporative cooling. It can be easilypromoted in urban as well as ruralareas to reduce losses, and at thesame time, help in promoting their

consumption, which should be the majorconcern for all those involved in hu­man nutrition, particularly fighting theproblems of malnutrition in childrenand lactating mothers.

• Marketing offruits and vegetables:Organised marketing of fruits and veg­etables is almost absent. Consequently,fluctuations in daily prices and a largemargin between the wholesale andthe retail prices is a common feature.The large margins are meant to coverrisks of loss due to perishability ofthe produce accentuated by the veryweak post-harvest infrastructure. How­ever, in commodities such as grapes,where organised marketing is doneby the Grape Growers' Association inMaharashtra, backed by a strong in­frastructure, the farmers are leastexploited and the distribution is quitewidespread, despite high degree ofperishability of the fruits. Similar ex­periences are available with onionsand mangoes in Maharashtra, applesin Himachal Pradesh and sapota inGujarat, etc.

India has about 4,000 regulatedmarkets of fruits and vegetables, mostof which are in urban and semi-urbanareas, using almost primitive meth­ods. Any attemptto introduce organisedmarketing using modernised systemsat the wholesale levels will have to bedone in the face of stiff opposition ofvested interests. Fruits (60 to 90 percent) are generally marketed throughpre-harvest contracts, while vegetables(70 to 98 per cent) are disposed offthrough commission agents3. The mar­keting cost varies from 17 to 21 percent of the market price in vegetableswhich includes commission at therate of 7 to 10 per cent of the totalvalue of the produce which is quitehigh. In fruits, the pre-harvest con­tractors carry away exorbitant profitsat the cost of the producers, in somecases, being as high as 60 per centon their investment. This can be avoidedto a large extent if the marketing isundertaken by the farmers'organisation/cooperatives, or produc­tion is taken up under a contract farmingsystem, which is gradually becomingpopular, particularly for exports andprocessi ng.

• Processi ng of fruits and vegetables:It is estimated that out of the totalproduction of fruits and vegetables inthe country, only 0.5 to 1 per cent ofthe raw materials is processed, which

7

compares very unfavourably with coun­tries such as Brazil and the USA with70 per cent utilisation, the Philippineswith 78 per cent, Malaysia with 83 percent and Thailand with 30 per cent.Although the total installed capacityin 1993 was about 12.61akh tonnes ofprocessed products, the productionwas only about 5.6 lakh tonnes. Ofthe various products, fruit juices andfruit pulp account for 27 per cent,followed by ready-to-serve beveragesand pickles being between 12 to 13per cent each, jams and jellies 10 percent and synthetics 8 per cent.

The other products are squash,tomato products, canned vegetablesand others. Recent additions to theseproducts are frozen pulps and veg­etables, freeze-dried fruits and veg­etables, fruit concentrates, aromas,packed vegetable curries, cannedmushrooms and mushroom products,tomato paste, potato chips, etc.

Despite a large production base,the availability of raw material to theindustry continues to be a major con­straint. This has a strong relation withthe per capita production of thesecommodities and India's share in theworld exports of processed fruits andvegetables. For countries whose sharein the world trade of processed fruitsexceeded 3 per cent, the per capitaproduction of fruits was three to 12times that of India. Similarly, for coun­tries whose share in the world exportof processed vegetables exceeded 2per cent, per capita vegetable pro­duction was two to five times that ofIndia. For instance, per capita pro­duction of fruits in 1990 in India wasonly 0.03 tonnes while in Israel it wasthe highest (0.35 tonnes), followedby New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina,Chile, Turkey, Australia, etc in therange of 0.15 to 0.28 tonnes. In allthese countries, utilisation of fruitsand vegetables for processing is muchhigher than in India and their share inworld exports is also equally high ascompared to India.

The quality of the materials avail­able in the country for processing isanother limiting factor. The Indianproduction is made up of produce ofdifferent varieties and, therefore, lacksin uniformity in physio-chemical char­acteristics. Added to this, all varietiesproduced in large quantities are notsuitable for processing, which in turncontributes to the poor output from aunit weight of the raw material used.

TABLE 2Demand projection and targets for 2002

Commodity

Demand Projection for 2002Target for 2002

Area

ProductionAreaProduction

Fruits

52.37594.7049.33560.00

Vegetables

69.611312.0057.321080.00

Spices

29.4044.3026.0039.00

Coconut

26.70156.0025.68150.00

(24,000)Cashew

6.878.006.037.00

Arecanuts

2.453.902.453.90

Total

187.402118.90166.811839.90

Source: Report of working group on Horticulture for IX Plan

It is reported that 16 tonnes of Indianpineapple are needed to produce 1tonne of its concentrate, as againstonly 8 tonnes of the Philippine pine­apple. Similarly, 7 tonnes of Indiantomato will produce about 1 tonne ofpaste as against only 4 tonnes ofItalian tomato. The price of the rawmaterials is another key factor con­tributing to its low availability to theindustry. According to the AnnualSurvey of Industries (ASI), raw mate­rial input constitutes as much as 83per cent of the value of the output.Indian prices are about two to fourtimes higher than those prevailing inthe international markets with respectto tomatoes, pineapples and oranges.

• Data base: Despite the fact thatthe total annual production ofhorticultural crops is around 130 to140 million tonnes as compared toover 190 million tonnes of foodgraincrops, the support for collection ofstatistical data on the area andproduction of these crops isinadequate. This is an aspect thatrequires attention.

DEMAND PROJECTIONS

The demand for fruits and veg­etables has been worked out on thebasis of the Recommended DietaryAllowance (RDA) of the ICMR, whichlays down a minimum per capita con­sumption of 90 gm of fruits and 280gm of vegetables including tubers.The demand has also taken into ac­count requirement of the processing

industry and for export. Accordingly,India will need about 60 million tonnesof fruits and 131 million tonnes ofvegetables by the year 2002 to meetthe requirements of a population ofover 1 billion (Table 2). About 0.5million tonnes of mushrooms are pro­jected, with a major share for theprocessing industry.

It is now to be analysed whetherthis demand can be fulfilled in thecoming five years. Looking at theconstraints prevailing, long gesta­tion periods of perennial crops, theinadequacy of infrastructure and otherbottlenecks, the growth expected inthe coming five years would not beenough to meet the total demand.Consequently, the targets for the NinthPlan have been adjusted on the ba­sis of growth rates expected. In caseof fruits and vegetables, a growthrate of 5 per cent has been antici­pated which would take our produc­tion to 56 million tonnes in fruits and108 million tonnes in vegetables in­cluding tuber crops.

Using these projections, it isestimated that the total demand forthe two commodities put together,by the end of the year 2002(Ninth Plan), would be around 190million tonnes, while the supply isexpected to be 160 million tonnes.This will call for continued and con­sistent efforts on raising crop pro­ductivity and reducing post-harvestlosses to make the country self-suffi­cient in these crops.

STRATEGIES FOR THE FUTURE

The strategy for meeting the tar·gets would primarily involve the exist·ing plantations, in which efforts to im·prove their productivity should con·tinue with more vigour and input 01advanced technology. Going by thEcurrent data (1994-95), the averagEproductivity of fruit and vegetable cropsput together works out to slightly lessthan 9 tonnes per hectare. Our effortsshould aim at least at increasing it byhalf-a-tonne per hectare per year onan average to provide an additional 25million tonnes by the year 2002. Addedto this will be the production expectedfrom the newly planted areas as a partof crop diversification campaign. Somestates have made ambitious programmesin this respect and are expected toconvert a large area presently underdryland agriculture into horticultureestates. We envisage at least 13 percent of the area to be diverted in thedry land/hilly/coastal belts which pres­ently are growing annual crops withsub-optimal productivity. Added to thiswould be a large chunk of wastelandsto be used for horticulture plantationswhich will add at least 3 million hect­ares to the area under these crops.Diversion of land in irrigated areaswould, however, be very limited mainlyin favour of high-value crops that arefloriculture, vegetables, strawberry, etc.In other words, expansion in the areaunder horticulture crops would in noway be at the cost of areas underfoodgrain crops or the inputs whichare being used for these crops.

The author is former Horticulture Commissioner,Government of India, and presently officer on spe­cial duty, National Agricultural Technology Project,ICAR, New Delhi.

References

1. Kaul, G.L.: Horticultural Crops in India. Pub­lished by Anmol Publications, New Delhi. 1986.

2. Vir.,S.: Horticulture intervention towards pre·vention of micronutrient deficiency in India. Paperpublished in the book. Strategies for HorticultureDevelopment in India, published by the Ministry 01

Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi.

3. Subrahmanyam, K.V.: Economics of productionand marketing of important fruits and vegetables inKarnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. FinalReport, UNDP Project, IIHR, Bangalore,1981.

The Foundation is gratefulto FAO for a matching grant

towards the cost ofthis publication

Edited by Ritu Jain for the Nutrition Foundation of India, C-13 Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi 110016.

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