Marketing of Fruits and Vegetables in India: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

India is a major exporter of fresh vegetables and fruit. When it comes to both fruit and vegetable output, it's second only to China. India's population is above 17%, yet it only has a 2.4% land share. As a whole, we appear to be inching closer and closer to a worldwide food catastrophe. Recent estimates from the United Nations' (UN) special report on the right to food indicate that approximately one billion people go to bed hungry every night, and one child dies from malnutrition every six seconds. Horticulture has come a long way in the last several years, particularly in terms of land and crop area, productivity, crop diversity, technology interventions for production, and post-harvest and forward connections through value addition and marketing. Almost 90 percent of the country's horticultural output consists of fruits and vegetables. The weather, periodic cyclones, occasional drought, population pressure, industrialization, urbanisation, and the enormous use of pesticides, and the obligation for rural masses to migrate to metropolitan regions, especially for their livelihood, are only a few of the obstacles. Though, in recent years, horticultural output has increased due to widespread shifts in the industry. Horticulture is not just a way of diversity; it is also crucial to food and nutritional security, the reduction of poverty, and the stability of the economy. Since food security is a major issue for India, as it is for many other nations, agricultural and horticultural development projects have shifted their emphasis to rural areas.