Marketing of horticultural produce in Manipur

Horticulture is the science and art of gardening and of cultivating fruits, vegetables, flowers etc.. Manipur has highly suitable agro – climatic conditions for a wide variety of horticultural crops especially in the foothills, mild hill slopes and along the river banks. Various potential horticultural crops of Manipur are Pineapple, Khasi Mandarin, Passion fruit, Kachia Lemon, Banana, Papaya, Tomato, brinjal, chilli, capsicum, Allium hookeri (Maroi Nakopi), Ginger, turmeric, King Chilli, Coriander, Onion, Garlic, and many types of flowers etc.The varied climate conditions and its topography with average temperature of 15.40C to250C, rainfall of 161.62cm, and an altitude of about 750 meters in the valley to about 3000meters in the hills and mountain peaks. Manipur favors for the cultivation of all horticulture plants. With the changes of the environmental process, herbal products are in great demand as a medicinal plant which solely depends on the development of Horticulture cultivation. Many of the foods that share the same medicinal properties reap the benefits, balance variety and moderation of life is the key to success from horticulture.

Marketing of horticultural produce in Manipur has not been systematically organized. The lion's share of the consumers’ rupee goes to the pockets of innumerable middlemen working in between the producer and the ultimate consumer. The Horticulturists of Manipur are generally the persons of small means. Their holdings are small and scattered. As such, they have got very little quantity of horticultural produce available individually as a marketable surplus to be disposed off. Obviously it becomes uneconomical to carry the small quantity of produce to the assembling markets located at distant places where middlemen operate at different stages. The present study highlights the important issues of marketing the horticultural produce. It also covers the main sectors of marketing systems which remain unorganized that ultimately uplift the economic development of the State in particular and country in general.