Agriculture & Horticulture | Geography for UPSC CSE PDF Download

Agriculture   

Foodgrains Production

Growth In

• There are limits to increasing production through area expansion as the country has almost reached a plateau in so far as cultivable land is concerned. Hence the emphasis has to be on increasing productivity levels. 
• The area under foodgrains has more or less remained constant at around 125 million hectares since 1970-71.
• Cereals production during 2012-13 was 238.8 million tonnes. In 2013-14 the estimated food grain production was 264.4 million tonnes.

Commercial Crops

Oilseeds

• There are nine major oilseeds namely groundnut, castorseed, sesamum, nigerseed, soyabean, sunflower, rapeseed/mustard, linseed and safflower.
• Of these, groundnut, rapeseed and mustard and soyabean occupy commanding position in terms of total production. 
• The three oilseeds together contribute about 85 percent of country's oilseeds production besides coconut, which is not included in the oilseeds as it is a tree crop. The production of oilseeds increased from 108.30 lakh tonnes in 1985-86 to 297.99 during 2011-12.

Cotton

• The overall production of cotton during 2005-06 is estimated at 34.2 million bales compared to 35.2 million bales in 2011-12. 
• Thus, the production of cotton remains more or less at the same level as of last year.

Sugarcane and Sugar

• The production of sugarcane has come out of cyclic aberration and posted a new record production level of 355.5 million tonnes during 2006-2007.

Jute and Mesta

• Production of jute and mesta has been fluctuating between 8 and 13 million bales. In 1998-99, the combined production of jute and mesta was 9.7 million bales which increased to 10.6 million bales, of which production of jute alone was around 9.6 million bales. 
• In 2012-13 it was 10.9 million bales as corrupted to 11.4 million bales in the previous year.

Cashew, Vanilla and Coconut

• It is estimated that total production of cashew is around 0.57 million tonnes from an area of 0.24 million hectares.
• The cultivation of vanilla in India started in 1990s and was to confined mostly to Karnataka and Kerala and to a lesser extent in Tamil Nadu, Nartheast Region, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. India’s production of vanilla was about 101 Metric Tonnes from about 27,811 hectare is 2004-05.
• Coconut is grown is an area of 1-93 million ha. with a production of 12,148 million nuts and productivity of 6285 nuts per ha. India is the third largest producer of coconut.

Plantation Crops

Tea

• India is the world's largest producer of tea but exports just about 24 per cent of its annual output and hence ranks fourth in export volume.
• Sri Lanka exports 95 percent of its production and ranks first with 265 million kgs export followed by Kenya exporting 89 per cent of its production.
• China occupies third rank with 35 per cent of its annual output being exported. Even Indonesia, a relatively smaller producer, exports about one-fifth of its annual production.
• Production during 2010-11 was at .97 million tonnes.

Coffee

• India ranks sixth in world coffee production with an annual production of about 3 lakh tonnes. Arabica and Robusta are two main varieties grown comprising 47 per cent and 53 per cent of area respectively. 
• Karnataka is the largest coffee producing state and accounts for about 56 per cent of the total coffee output. 
• Coffee has emerged as an export oriented commodity. The major buyers of Indian coffee are Russia, Italy, Germany, USA, Japan, Middle East countries, Poland, Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia and Belgium.

Natural Rubber

• India is the world's fourth largest producer of rubber and 97 per cent of demand for natural rubber is met by indigenous production. 
• During 2011-12 production of natural rubber projected at 9.02 lakh tonnes. India is the second largest consumer of natural rubber at 9.77 lakh tonnes in 2011-12.
• Kerala produces more than 90 per cent of the area under cultivation.

Agriculture In India

 Horticulture

• Horticulture is a branch of agriculture relating to the cultivation of fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants.
• Horticulture is a capital and labor intensive agriculture.
• India is bestowed with varied agro-climates, which is highly favorable for growing large number of horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, spices, root tuber, ornamental, aromatic plants, medicinal species and plantation crops like coconut, arecanut, cashew and cocoa.
• Presently, horticulture crops occupy about 10 per cent of the gross cropped area of the country, producing about 160 million tones.
• India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables.
• The total production of fruits has been estimated at about 63 million tons from 5.7 million hectares.
• Vegetables occupy an area of 7.8 million hectares with a production of 125 million tons (India 2009). India’s share in world fruit and vegetable production is 12.6 per cent and about 14.0 per cent respectively.

Fruits

• Indian climate favors the development of a large range of varieties of fruits. Indians share in the total fruit production of the world is 10 per cent.
• Mango, banana, citrus, pineapple, papaya, guava, sapota (cheekoo), jackfruit, litchi, and grapes, among the tropical and subtropical fruits; apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, almond, walnut, among the temperate fruits; and aonla, ber, pomegranate, fig, phalsa, among the arid fruits are important.
• India’s top produced fruit is Banana (32%), followed by Mango (21%). On the other hand, Mango is cultivated on largest area in comparison to any other fruit. Top cultivator state of Banana is Tamil Nadu; and of Mango are Uttar Pradesh (24.4%) and Andhra Pradesh (24.5%).
• India leads the world in the production of mango, banana and nimboo (arid lime), and in productivity of grapes per unit land area.
• About 10 per cent of world’s mango and 23 per cent of world’s banana are produced in the country.
• In grapes, India has recorded the highest productivity per unit area in the world.

Vegetables

• More than 40 kinds of vegetables are grown in India.
• Important vegetable crops grown in the country are potato, tomato, onion, chilies, carrot, radish, turnip, beans, lady finger, guard, letuce, brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, okra, and peas.
• India’s largest produced vegetables are Potato, followed by Tomato. Among vegetables, largest area under cultivation is that of Potato. India is next only to China in area and production of vegetables, and occupies the first position in the production of cauliflower, second in onion, and third in cabbage in the world.
• The area and production of major vegetables during 2004-05 is estimated at 6.30 million hectares with a production 01.93 million tones and average productivity of 11.8 tons per hectare.
• During 2016-17, total vegetable production was highest in case of Uttar Pradesh (26.4 million tons) followed by West Bengal (25.5 million tons).

Flowers

• The increased growing of contemporary cut flowers like rose, gladiolus, tuberose, carnation, etc. has led their use for bouquets and arrangements for gifts, as well as decoration of both home and workplace.
• A growing market, as a result of improvement in the general level of well – being in the country and increased affluence, particularly among the upper and middle classes, has led to transformation of the activity of flower growing into a well developed industry.
• Availability of diverse agro-climatic conditions in the large country facilitates production of all major flowers throughout the year in some part or the other and improved transportation facilities have increased the availability of flowers all over the country.
• India has made noticeable advancement in the production of flower. Floriculture is estimated to cover an area of 1.14 lakh hectares with a production of 670,000 million tones of loose flowers and 13,010 million tones of cut flowers.
• In terms of flowers production Tamil Nadu has the highest share of production of flowers (loose flowers).
• A major programme, namely National Horticulture Mission (NHM) was launched in the country during the Tenth Five Year Plan with effect from 2005–06. The main objectives of the Mission are to enhance horticulture production through area based regionally differentiated strategies to improve nutritional security and income support to farm households, and to promote and disseminate technologies.

Horticulture in India

• Horticulture is the cultivation of garden plants, fruits, berries, nuts, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and turf. Horticulturists work for plant propagation, crop production, plant breeding, genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, plant physiology, storage, processing and transportation.
• Horticulturalists use modern nurseries for the production of seedlings and mother plants. These plants are propagated through different methods such as seeds, inarching, budding, veneer grafting, patch budding and soft wood grafting.
• Tamil Nadu: This State is suitable for horticulture because of its rich bio diversity and appropriate climate. A wide variety of tropical fruits, temperate fruits, vegetables, spices, condiments, plantation crops, medicinal herbs, aromatic plants and commercial flowers are grown here.
• Jammu and Kashmir: The horticulture industry is the mainstay of the rural economy of Kashmir. Every year, this industry earns revenue of over Rs. 50 crores. Fruits cultivated in Kashmir include a variety of apple, pears, cherries, walnuts, almonds, peaches, saffron, apricots, strawberries and plums.
• Odisha: Here horticulture consists of the cultivation of fruits like pineapple, mango and cashew, vegetables like mushroom, drumstick, and onions; and spices like ginger and turmeric. Strategies by the State Government for the promotion of horticulture include supplying better quality planting material at subsidized rates, conducting training programmers; field demonstrations and encouraging cultivation at lift irrigation points. 
• Punjab: Around 1, 82,600 hectares of land were brought under horticulture crops till 2002. This area has grown a lot since then. Currently, fruits like sweet orange, kinnow, guava, peace, litchi and mango are grown in the region.
• Maharashtra: Horticulture involves the cultivation of fruits like banana, fig, grapes, custard apple, wood apple, jhambul, pomegranate, mandarin orange, guava and sweet orange. Vegetables, medicinal plants and spices are also grown in the state.
• Tripura: It the land of high hills and hillocks interspersed with rivers and valleys. It has moderately warm and humid climate coupled with well – distributed annual rainfall of 2500 mm. This terrain and climate is ideally suited for rainfed horticulture. Fruits like pineapple, jackfruit, orange, litchi, cashew nut, coconut, lime and lemon are produced in abundance. 
• Assam: Some of the popular horticulture crops grown in Assam are carambola, wood apple, jackfruit, ginger, oranges, olives, figs and bamboo shoot. Almost 75 per cent of the population of the state derives their livelihood from agriculture and horticulture.
• Andhra Pradesh: This State has a varied climate and is suitable for a wide range of horticultural crops. It leads in the production of citrus, chillies, turmeric and oil palm. Andhra Pradesh is also a major producer of cocoa, cashew, guava, coriander, banana, ginger and coconut.

Horticulture Vs Agriculture

• Horticulture primarily differs from agriculture in two ways.
• First, it generally encompasses a smaller scale of cultivation, using small plots of mixed crops rather than large fields of single crops.
• Secondly, horticultural cultivations generally include a wide variety of crops, even including fruit trees with ground crops.
• Horticulture sector has marked higher growth as compared to agriculture sector in India from 2012-13 to 2017-18.

Importance and Scope of Horticulture in India

• India with more than 68 million tones of fruits and 121 million tones of vegetables in 2011-12 is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, next only to China. 
• However, per capita consumption of fruits and vegetables in India is only around 46 gram and 130 grams respectively against a minimum of about 92 gram and 300 gram respectively recommended by Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Nutrition. 
• With the present level of population, the annual requirement of fruits and vegetables will be of the order of 110 million tons and 360 million tons respectively (Karunakaran and Palanisami, 2012).
• It is estimated that India has 12.66 million hectares of cultivable wasteland as on 2011- 12, which is lying idle, which can be brought under orchard crops without curtailing the area under food crops.
• The country has abundant sunshine throughout year, surplus labor and widely varied agro – climatic regions, which offer high potential for successful and profitable commercial horticulture. The major crops in case of fruits are mango, banana, citrus, apple, pineapple and in case of vegetables are potato, onion, tomato and other seasonal vegetables.