New Delhi: Indian Horticulture Production in the 2020-21 pandemic is expected to be high throughout 330 million tons which is almost 3% higher than the output in 2019-20, keeping the speed that grows consistently consumers for fruits and vegetables.
The analysis of the past data shows trends where farmers continue to increase horticultural plants, produce higher outputs supported by the use of seed varieties that produce high and better agricultural techniques.
The latest data, released on Thursday as part of the second estimate of the Ministry of Agriculture from the horticulture output for the annual 2020-21 (the July-June cycle), shows that the country has registered an increase in production compared to the previous year in all categories of horticultural plants – fruits, Vegetables, spices, plantations (such as coconut, cocoa, areca-nuts and cashew nuts), and aromatics & medicinal plants – except interest.
Among vegetables, the three most popular kitchen staples – tomatoes, onions and potatoes (above) – have registered an increase in 2020-21 compared to 2019-20.
While Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra turned out to be three states in producing fruits in 2020-21, credit producing vegetables went to West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as three states.
However, Uttar Pradesh emerged as the top producer with 13% of the total production of all horticultural plants put together.
Sharing forecasts of the highest horticulture output, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar links an increase in production with “farmer-friendly policies, tireless efforts from farmers and research by scientists”.
Previously in May, the ministry had broken the results estimated at around 327 million tons (MT).
However, it has now revised to 330 MT by taking into account the updated production data from states and other government institutions.
According to updated output data, fruit production is estimated at 102.76 MT this year compared to 102.08 MT in 2019-20 while vegetable production is estimated at 196.27 MT (more than 4% growth) compared to 188.28 mt tons on Previous year.
The production of onion, which always faces high price fluctuations that leads to the main concern among consumers, however, reported a small increase – from 26.09 MT in 2019-20 to 26.92 MT at 2020-21.
Production of potatoes, on the other hand, increased by more than 10% – from 48.50 MT in 2019-20 to 53.69 MT at 2020-21.