Horticulture deserves better amid export hurdles and safety norms

Horticulture has emerged as one of the key growth engines of Indian agriculture. The production of fruit, vegetables, and other horticultural crops has consistently outstripped that of food grains ever since 2011-12. This agricultural year, 2024-25 (July to June), the output of horticultural products is projected at 362 million tonnes, which is nearly 10 per cent higher than the anticipated food grain output of 331 million tonnes, though the land under horticulture is merely one-fourth of that under grain crops. Besides, annual growth in horticultural production has been around 8 per cent, against nearly 4 per cent in the case of food grains. Since 1950, horticultural output has swelled 14.5 times, against a 7.2-fold surge in food grain output. Nearly 40 per cent of the horticulture sector’s development has taken place in the past couple of decades. 

Horticultural crops are characteristically more productive and remunerative than food crops. Their productivity, on the whole, averages around 12.5 tonnes a hectare, some five times the grain crops’ mean yield of about 2.5 tonnes. Many horticultural crops, especially vegetables, have a short life cycle, spanning a few weeks, to allow raising multiple crops on the same piece of land in a year. Another reason for high returns from horticulture is the greater market value of fruit, vegetables, spices, and other horticultural goods than that of cereals. Horticultural products also have an edge over food grains in terms of nutritional value, being rich in vitamins, minerals, and numerous other health-boosting ingredients. Little wonder, therefore, that horticulture contributes roughly 33 per cent of the value of gross domestic agricultural production (agri-GDP), though it occupies only around 23 per cent of the total agricultural land. 

Globally, India is the second-largest producer of fruit and vegetables, next to China. But, it leads the world in the production of several important items such as mangoes, bananas, papaya, onions, ginger, and okra. It is also the second-biggest grower of potatoes, green peas, tomatoes, cabbage, and cauliflower. Besides, India excels in the production and export of spices, accounting for around 25 per cent of international trade in spices. 

However, there is a downside to it as well. Despite a whopping 50 per cent surge in the export of horticultural products in the past five years, India’s overall share in the global trade of processed and fresh fruit and vegetables remains less than 1 per cent. Also, the wastage of horticultural produce ranges from 15 per cent to as high as 40 per cent, depending upon the perishability of different items. Such disquietingly heavy losses are attributable largely to the poor post-harvest management of spoil-prone produce, and low level of processing of fruit and vegetables into value-added and shelf life-enhanced products.  Less than 4 per cent of horticultural output goes to food-processing factories for value upgrade through conversion into commercially marketable, less perishable, and higher priced substances like juices, jams, purees, and frozen or dehydrated fruit and vegetables. Only a tiny fraction of horticultural produce is preserved in the form of traditional fare like achar (pickles) and murabba (sweetened preserves) in the household and unorganised sector. 

That said, the noteworthy truth also is that much of the progress in the horticulture sector has come about without the kind of market and price support extended by the government to food crops. Though there is a plethora of government-sponsored schemes and institutions to promote horticulture, none of the horticultural products barring copra is covered under minimum support prices (MSPs). Even some of the mass-consumed items like tomatoes, onions, and potatoes (popularly dubbed as TOP) do not receive any marketing support, and are subject to high volatility in prices. Instances are legion where farmers have been forced to either leave their crops unharvested or throw the produce on the road because of the unchecked price slump in the wake of bumper harvests. 

Most woes of Indian horticulture can be ascribed to inapt post-harvest handling, a deficit in produce-management infrastructure (such as refrigerated storage and transportation facilities), and want of the vital value chain from farms to consumers. On the one hand, the overall logistics infrastructure is insufficient and not ideally suited for the spoilable horticultural crops, and, on the other, the available refrigerated warehousing capacity is too meagre to accommodate the massive produce. Besides, the cold stores are sparse and geographically ill-distributed. About half the available refrigerated storage capacity is located in just four states — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, and West Bengal. 

Exporters of horticultural products, too, face several formidable challenges, including non-tariff trade barriers, such as arbitrarily fixed food-safety standards and stringent sanitary and phytosanitary norms. Export cargo is often rejected at import

destinations, especially in the European Union, because of residues of high pesticides, the presence of pests or pathogens, and other quality-related concerns. Such issues need to be addressed to sustain, and further boost, the production and growth of this sunrise sector.

surinder.sud@gmail.com