Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare has recently approved Rs 2,250 crores for the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture for the year 2021-22.

About the Mission

• It aims at developing the horticultural sector in India.
• It covers fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, roots, flowers, bamboo, cocoa, coconut, spices, aromatic plants and cashews.
• Under the mission, technical support is to be provided to the State Horticultural Mission, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, Saffron Mission and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.
• The National Horticulture Board is implementing several schemes under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture.
• The Mission is currently focusing on promotion of Farmer Producer Organisation, credit push through Agriculture Infrastructure fund and cluster development programmes. In August 2020, PM Narendra Modi established Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs 1 lakh Crores. Recently, the Agriculture Infrastructure crossed Rs 8,000 crores.

Achievements of Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture

• The area of cultivation of the components of the mission was increased by 9% between 2014-15 and 2019-20.
• The production of these components were increased by 14% during the same time period.

Challenges of the Mission

High gaps and losses in post-harvest management. Also, there are very little Supply Chain Infrastructure.

Horticulture in India

• The Horticultural production in India has almost doubled between 2001 (146 million tonnes) and 2019 (314 million tonnes).
• The productivity of horticultural crops increased from 8.8 tonnes per hectare in 2001 to 12.3 tonnes per hectare in 2019.
• The share of horticultural crops to the agricultural crops increased from 39% in 2011 to 42% in 2019.
• Around Rs 63,700 crores of horticultural crops are exported from India as of 2019-20.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2021