Pawan Kumar Sharma and Sudhir Jamwal
India is a home to variety of horticultural crops which covers a wide range of fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, flowers, mushrooms, spices, medicinal and aromatic plants. India produces about 70 varieties of vegetables and equally diverse variety of fruits, consisting 70% of tropical and sub-tropical type and 30% of temperate type. The importance of horticultural sector in Indian economy can be visualized from the fact that it accounts for 30% of India’s agricultural GDP from only 8.5% of the cropped area.
When we talk of a diversification in agriculture, horticultural crops provides us an important source in the form of an alternative cropping pattern with higher returns. Among the high value crops in India, horticultural crops command high value not only in terms of their potential in generating income and employment, but also on the basis of export-earning opportunities. With the changing consumption pattern towards horticultural crops and rising per capita income, there is an increase in internal demand as well as export opportunities for horticultural crops. The share of fruits in total consumer expenditure has increased from 4.38% in 1987-88 to 22.30% in 2007-08.
Diversification towards horticultural crops is expounded as the strength of Indian agriculture, due to its potential to produce a wide variety of horticultural crops under varied agro-climatic conditions. The state of Jammu & Kashmir consists of four agro-climatic zones; ideal for production of temperate and sub-tropical fruits and vegetables. The state alone contributes about 75 percent of India’s temperate fruit production and provides gainful employment to 2.5 lakh people. About 45% of economic returns of agriculture come from horticulture that contributes about 8% to the state’s economy. The cultivation of horticultural crops is labour intensive and requires a significantly higher labour force, starting from the stage of planting the trees, to the point of its marketing. Thus, horticulture sector has a potential to absorb & employ huge chunk of unemployed population in the state.
It is a recognized fact that full benefits of reforms in agriculture cannot be materialized, until we established a link between farmers and consumers. National Horticulture Mission launched in 2003-04 in North Eastern States and Jammu and Kashmir made some progress in respect of increasing the production along with integration of marketing. In horticultural crops, post-harvest losses are generally high, ranging from 15 to 50 per cent. A high wastage and loss of output has been witnessed, especially in the hilly districts due to lack of initiatives on part of the farmers to market the fruits. Such wastage not only results in loss of revenue but also reduce the per capita availability of fruits.
In the present situation, farmers are required to develop themselves as entrepreneurs for deriving greater benefits from their agriculture. The marketed surplus will remains small, keeping in view the holdings acquired by the farmers in the state. As per the 8th Agriculture census of J&K conducted in 2005-06, about 94% of the operational holders fall in the category of marginal and small farmers. Small farmers having small surplus, appeared to be reluctant in marketing their produce, as the net returns they could attain would not cover even the cost of marketing.
The new generation of educated farmers and unemployed rural youth has an opportunity to become entrepreneur and adopt horticulture as a business enterprise. A farmer does not become an entrepreneur only by adopting new agricultural technology but he becomes an entrepreneur only when he comes to be an operator of farm business. The marketing cost of fruits and vegetables is almost 50% of the total cost of production which tends to be increased further with more wastage and loss of produce. ‘Assembling’ is a marketing function that can solve this problem in horticultural marketing, but we need entrepreneurs who can manage and save the resources for themselves and for the country. Infrastructure like roads and markets are building in a phased manner and will surely complement the horticultural marketing. With the opening of Mughul road, a large number of youths are engaged in bringing apple from Kashmir to Poonch and Rajouri for marketing. The same can be reciprocated by transporting pear and plum from Poonch to Kashmir. This is how, the wastage of produce on farmers’ fields can be minimized and horticulture becomes an important source of gainful employment. There is a long term need to remove the distortions in the present supply chain and create better integration between different links of the supply chain. Entrepreneurship development among farmers is an important way of achieving that integration for bringing net gain to producers, consumers and to the nation.
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