Horticulture has emerged as one of the key growth engines of Indian agriculture. The production of fruit, vegetables, and other horticultural crops has consistently outstripped that of food grains ever since 2011-12. This agricultural year, 2024-25 (July to June), the output of horticultural products is projected at 362 million tonnes, which is nearly 10 per cent higher than the anticipated food grain output of 331 million tonnes, though the land under horticulture is merely one-fourth of that under grain crops. Besides, annual growth in horticultural production has been around 8 per cent, against nearly 4 per cent in the case of food grains. Since 1950, horticultural output has swelled 14.5 times, against a 7.2-fold surge in food grain output. Nearly 40 per cent of the horticulture sector’s development has taken place in the past couple of decades.
Horticultural crops are characteristically more productive and remunerative than food crops. Their productivity, on the whole, averages around 12.5 tonnes a hectare, some five times the grain crops’ mean yield of about 2.5 tonnes. Many horticultural crops, especially vegetables, have a short life cycle, spanning a few weeks, to allow raising multiple crops on the same piece of land in a year. Another reason for high returns from horticulture is the greater market value of fruit, vegetables, spices, and other horticultural goods than that of cereals. Horticultural products also have an edge over food grains in terms of nutritional value, being rich in vitamins, minerals, and numerous other health-boosting ingredients. Little wonder, therefore, that horticulture contributes roughly 33 per cent of the value of gross domestic agricultural production (agri-GDP), though it occupies only around 23 per cent of the total agricultural land.
