Lucknow: ICAR-Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture, Lucknow, under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India is organizing a Launch workshop for “Farmers’ First Programme” and also a “Farmers training programme on safe and judicious use of pesticides” at ICAR-CISH, Rehmankhera on 21st March 2017 at 11.30AM. The theme of the programme is “Safe and quality mango production and doubling farmers’ income”. On this occasion, various stakeholders of the fruit supply chain of mango right from production to consumption including state government officials, pre-harvest fruit contractors, post harvest managers/service providers, processors, transporters, agro-input suppliers, markets agents, Krishi Vigyan Kendras are expected to participate besides various technology development agencies. An exhibition is also being arranged for approximately 500 farmers. Farmers will be sensitized to follow the spray schedule for effective management of insect pests and diseases. On the occasion, Hon’ble Shri Shri Ram Naik, Governor, UP will be the chief guest.
Horticulture development in the country-present scenario
India’s record of progress in agriculture over the past four decades has been quite impressive. The agriculture sector has been successful in keeping pace with the rising demand for food. It contributes approximately 15 per cent to the national GDP, while horticulture sector in the country alone accounts for more than 30 per cent contribution to the agricultural GDP. At present, India is producing more than 280 million tonnes from horticultural sector which is more than the total food grain production (260 million tonnes) of the country. Further, its role in improving the factor productivity, generating employment opportunities, improving livelihood security and economic conditions of the farming communities and entrepreneurs, and above all ensuring health and nutritional security to the population is widely acknowledged. India, producing 88.97 million MT fruits from 7.22 million ha, is the second largest producer of fruits, next only to China, which accounts for around 12 per cent of the total world fruit production.
Nutritional security -the need of the hour
The major problem is malnutrition. The surveys have indicated anemia rates of 51-74 % in women and children. Horticultural crops with potential to address the issues of nutritional security could play a vital role in the prosperity of a nation which is directly linked to the health and happiness of the people. With the present level of population, the annual requirement of horticultural produce is projected at 360 million MT by the year 2020-21. India is the a major producer of both fruits and vegetables in the world today, but per capita consumption of fruits and vegetables in India is only around 46 g and 130 g against a minimum of about 92 g and 300 g per day respectively as recommended by Indian Council of Medical Research and Nation Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad.
Doubling farmers income
The institute has launched a Farmers’s First programme in selected villages of Malihabad area, viz Nabi Panah, Meethenagar and Mohammadnagar Talukedari to demonstrate the impact of various horticultural and other technological interventions in enhancing farmers income. Uttar Pradesh has a vast potential for the development of horticulture. There has been a substantial increase both in area and production of horticulture crops in UP. The challenges lie in ensuring market integration and remunerative prices to the farmers for enhanced profitability to the farmers, sustainability, livelihood security. Conducive policies, handholding and infrastructure development especially to strengthen the post harvest and processing sector are the key issues.
There is further scope to augment productivity, integration of shade loving intercrops in mango orchards, quality production of horticultural crops, diversification of cropping systems through high value horticultural crops, ensuring availability of quality planting material, reducing cost of cultivation, improving post-harvest management practices, infrastructure and value addition opportunities and marketing. There is a need to review state government policies for effective transfer of technology in general and processing and marketing of horticultural produce in particular. Horticultural value chains need to be strengthened taking into account all the stakeholders of the chain to ensure profitability to the producer and quality to the consumers. Value chain management should include development of agri-value chain through involvement of private sector in PPP mode, modernizing rural and urban markets leading to prevention of post harvest losses (up to 5% from the current >30 %), encourage farmer’s cooperatives/associations, export promoting organizations, NGOs, SHGs, Agri-finance institutions, Crop Insurance companies, etc. and above all creating awareness of global GAP and implications of WTO regimes for quality production of commodities.
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