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Government’s focus is on horticulture

PROMOTING HORTICULTURE : H.P. Singh, Deputy Director General, Horticulture, ICAR, New Delhi, releasing a souvenir at a meeting on tropical fruits at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore on Friday. G.S.R. Murti, Director and Project Co-ordinator, IIHR, Bangalore (left) and D. Veeraraghavathatham, Dean, Horticulture, TNAU (right) are in the picture.

COIMBATORE: The Government’s focus is on horticulture and as a result this sector has received its due recognition. If any revolution has taken place, it has occurred in horticulture, with horticultural production increasing to 180 million tonnes, H.P. Singh, Deputy Director General – Horticulture, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, said here on Friday.

Inaugurating a four-day meeting of All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRP) on Tropical Fruits at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), he said that horticulture was the best option available for diversification of agriculture.

“In recent years horticultural sector has attracted the maximum investment and hence has experienced maximum output. For instance, in the last 20-25 years, banana production has increased from seven million tonnes to 18 million tonnes, which is 17 per cent of the world’s production of banana,” Mr. Singh said. He added that among the tropical fruits, demand for papaya had increased in the country due to availability of good quality varieties. The AICRP system had paved way for developing papaya fruits of different sizes, colour, taste, sugar content, etc., thereby giving plenty of choice for the consumers.

He indicated that the AICRP project had also paved way for exchange of good varieties and technologies on tropical fruits across the country thereby benefiting farmers and consumers. “The fruit varieties that were accessible only to rich people have now been made available to even the poor by means of AICRP. The other thrust areas of research under AICRP include developing good quality fruit varieties, especially for dry lands, reduction in post harvest losses, increasing production and productivity with less water and restoration of vanishing traditional germplasm,” Mr. Singh added.

He released a book titled "GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) for Mango Production".

B. Chandrasekaran, Director of Research, TNAU, spoke on the major constraints facing tropical fruits production, such as low productivity, long gestation periods, high capital costs, and labour scarcity. He urged scientists to concentrate on the thrust areas viz., improving per tree productivity, developing suitable machinery for harvest of fruits, and identifying Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (ITK).

G.S.R. Murti, Director and Project Co-ordinator (Tropical Fruits), Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore, D. Veeraragavathatham, Dean (Horticulture), TNAU and S. Natarajan, Dean (Horticulture), Periyakulam, spoke.

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