Horticultural (high value agricultural) crops diversification in eastern India: II – Employment opportunities and income generation strategies

Diversification into horticultural crops is becoming an avenue to poverty alleviation amongst many farmers around the world. In India, horticultural crops form a significant part of total agricultural GDP and horticultural production rose significantly thus making an impressive rise. The production of fruit and vegetables has a comparative advantage particularly under conditions where arable land is scarce, labour abundant, and markets accessible due to positive relation between income and employment in the horticultural crops. The cultivation of horticultural crops is capital-intensive and labourintensive and through high value agricultural (HVA) crops cultivation, post harvest management, grading and packaging, and marketing provide more opportunities for income and employment generation. Gross returns per unit of area from fruits, vegetables and flowers are much higher than for most of the other crop groups. Diversified cropping patterns have been a traditional insurance in dry and drought prone regions where weather vagaries and other uncertainties are translated to painful income instability. Different kind of agro-climatic situations prevail in the eastern region of India stressing further for some alternative technologies including HVA crops. Maintaining and increasing yields in horticultural crops through better conservation and management of pollinators is critically important to health, nutrition and food security in addition to income generation. Expanding the existing use of indigenous vegetables can be a very important means of improving family nutrition, however, lack of access to suitable quality seed/planting material and knowledge of the nutritional benefits of these often “neglected” crops can be major factors in their failure to be sufficiently exploited in the battle against malnutrition. By the use of scientific production technologies, increasing water use efficiency, post harvest management, use of plastic culture, mass propagation of planting material through micro propagation techniques, diagnostic molecular techniques and linking with market facilities etc. the productivity and profitability of horticultural crops can be increased. Through HVA crop diversification prospects of agribusiness opportunities increases through secondary agriculture and fruit and vegetable seed trade.