India is the second largest producer of fruits (81.285 million tonnes) and vegetables (162.19 million tonnes) in the world, contributing 12.6% and 14.0% of the total world production of fruits and vegetables respectively.
India is the largest producer of ginger and okra and ranks second in the production of potatoes, onions, cauliflowers, brinjal, cabbages, etc. Among fruits, the country ranks first in the production of bananas (22.94%), papayas (44.03%) and mangoes (including mangosteens, and guavas 37.57%).
Mangoes, walnuts, grapes, bananas and pomegranates account for a large portion of fruits exported from the country, while onions, okra, bitter gourd, green chilies and potatoes contribute largely to the vegetable export basket.
India is a front runner in many fruits and vegetables with a share in world production (Indian Horticulture Database 2013) as follows:
- 44.1% of mango
- 42.6% papaya
- 25.6% of banana
- 20.2% of onion
- 35.6% of cauliflower
- 37% of okra
Fruit production has surged impressively in India, making the country the second largest global producer behind China.
Annual growth in horticulture has seen fruit production grow faster than vegetables, though the latter constitute the largest segment of this sector of agriculture. The stellar performance of fruits has attracted the attention of statisticians with the agriculture ministry's 'horticultural statistics at a glance 2015' noting that India was making its presence felt as the second largest producer of vegetables and fruit.
"Grapes occupy the premier position in exports with 107.3 thousand tonnes valued at Rs 10.86 billion in 2014-15. Other fruits which attained significant position in exports are banana and mango," the handbook said.
Robust growth of horticulture indicates a growing demand within the country too. There is scope for further growth as, while India lies second in the list of major fruit producing countries featuring China, the US, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Indonesia, the Philippines and Turkey, its productivity lags behind most of these countries.
China tops the list of fruit production with 154.364 million tonnes (MT) in 2013 followed by India (82.631 MT), Brazil (37.774 MT), USA (26.986 MT), Spain (17.699 MT), Mexico (17.553 MT), Italy (16.371 MT) and Indonesia (16.003 MT). Surprisingly, though productivity is a weak spot, India does better than China and Spain.
The handbook, published by the Oxford University Press, points out that significant progress has been made in increasing the area under horticulture resulting in higher production. "Over the last decade, the area under horticulture grew by about 2.7% per annum and annual production increased by 7%", it said.
Source: Karthikeyan Dhanushkodi at linkedin.com
