Department of Agricultural Economics, CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur-176 062, Himachal Pradesh.
Lately, horticulture has emerged as the key instrument of the Indian agricultural development strategy against the scourge of poverty, unemployment and malnourishment. As such, it has attracted massive hikes in the plan outlays. Though, horticultural-based agricultural diversification in India has been most prominent in the southern and western regions, many states in the north-east and north-west regions hold huge promise to make this diversification more broad based. Realising this potential, tremendous policy support has been given to these states in the form of various schemes in the past couple of years. The present article has analysed the performance of this sector at the national level, especially with respect to exports and has examined the changes in contribution of horticulture in the mountainous states of north-west and north-east regions, using secondary data. The results have revealed that the growth in output of fruits and vegetables slowed down during the second half of 1990s. The exports of total fruits and vegetables have depicted a robust growth during the past one decade or so. Notwithstanding the extreme shortage of cold chain facilities, the share of processed fruits and vegetables in the total exports has indicated an increasing trend. The cause for concern is that the area under fruit and vegetable crops in these mountainous states has witnessed a decline during the study period; the decline being more severe for vegetable crops. The productivity of fruits and vegetables has revealed a hike in these states, the hike being more pronounced in fruit crops. Though, the value of output from total fruits and vegetables in the mountainous states has exhibited a robust growth rate, their share in the total value of output from fruits and vegetables in the country has remained unchanged. The study has concluded that extra policy support to these states for the development of horticulture is yet to become more discernible in terms of growth of horticulture sector.
