Accelerating Growth in Vegetable Production System for Economic and Sustainable Development

This study has identified the sources of growth in the agricultural sector based on the data collected from various published sources and websites on variables like area, production and productivity of vegetables for the periods 1991–92 to 2000–01 and 2001–02 to 2010–11. Although India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world, its productivity is lower than the world average, depicting a potential gap in the productivity that can be harnessed by yield enhancement. The study has revealed that the soruces of growth of vegetable production have changed over the past two decades. The diversification has been found to be the largest contributor to this growth but its contribution has declined from 86.5 per cent during 1990s to 42.6 per cent during 2000s. The contribution of yield has also declined and of prices and area have increased during this period. The study has concluded that by accelerating growth in vegetable production it is possible to provide nutritional security, livelihood security and women empowerment which shall lead to economic and food security of the rural people in the country.