1Department of Agricultural Economics & Statistics, C. S. Azad University of Agriculture & Technology, Kanpur - 208 002.
2Division of Agricultural Economics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi - 110012.
The production potential of horticultural crops in Uttar Pradesh has been highlighted along with drawing a roadmap for its development in the state. Although there are hundred of fruits and nut species of tropical origin that may be considered for commercial development, the number of actual successful crops is small. For achieving success in the context of agribusiness, the most important step is selection of fruits of commercial value. This may involve several steps starting from generating a list of potential food species; identifying commercial (economic) species; determining commercial success of foods in the given region; defining development opportunities and potential problems/constraints and earmarking key extension points required to ensure commercial success. The economic value may be determined by factors like consumer potential, quality; buyer's confidence; market development; competition with other fruits; place in the dietary chain; ease of consumption; ability to promote and sell in particular markets; processed product market, product marketing characteristics, etc in the study area. The paper has suggested utilizing of favourable agroecological endowments, growing size and labour resource and established advantage for tropical fruits development in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It has also suggested development of a higher level of infrastructure and dissemination of technological advances for establishing new outlets in the state in present regime of market globalization.
