Golden Revolution in India

Golden Revolution was the period between 1991-2003. Golden Revolution focuses on Honey and Horticulture production.

Factors affecting the horticulture sector growth during Golden Revolution:-

1) Increase in cropping intensity of land

2) Shift in cropping pattern in favour of crops with higher returns

3) Improving the technique of cultivation.

The performance of the Indian horticultural sector during 1991-2003 has provoked dramatically. Researchers have described it as a ‘golden revolution’, presumably to distinguish it from the earlier ‘green revolution’

Horticultural development had not been a priority in India until 1990's. In the period 1948-80, the main focus of the country was on cereals.

During 1980-92 there was a consolidation of institutional support and a planned process for the development of horticulture. It was in the post-1993 period that a focused attention was given to horticulture development through an enhancement of knowledge-based technology.

Despite this decade being called a “Golden Revolution” in horticultural production, the productivity of horticultural crops has increased only marginally from 7.5 tons per hectare in 1991-92 to 8.4 tons per hectare in 2004-05 (NHB, 2005).

National Horticulture Mission

Then the National Horticulture Mission was launched in 2005-06 by the Government of India with a mandate to promote integrated development in horticulture, to help in coordinating, stimulating and sustaining the production and processing of fruits and vegetables and to establish a sound infrastructure in the field of production, processing and marketing with a focus on post-harvest management to reduce losses.

In 2005 the total area under fruits and vegetables was 11.72 million hectares and the aggregate production stood at 150.73 million tons (NHB, 2005). Production of horticulture increased to 281 million tonnes from an area of 23.2 million hectares in 2015-16. As a result of this huge spurt in horticulture produce, India has become the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, next only to China.

The annual area and production growth under fruits and vegetables in the period 1991-2005 in India was 2.6 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively.

Horticulture Exports

The share of fruits and vegetables in the total value of agricultural exports has increased over the years from 9.5 per cent in 1980-81 to 16.5 per cent in 2002-03. But India is still lagging behind in actual exports of these produce. For example, India produces 65 per cent and 11 per cent of world’s mango and banana, respectively, ranking first in the production of both the crops. Yet India’s exports of the two crops are nearly negligible of the total agricultural exports from India.

The Indian horticulture sector is facing severe constraints such as low crop productivity, limited irrigation facilities and underdeveloped infrastructure support like cold storages, markets, roads, transportation facilities, etc. There are heavy post-harvest and handling losses, resulting in low productivity per unit area and high cost of production. However, on the other hand, India’s long growing-season, diverse soil and climatic conditions comprising several agro-ecological regions provide ample opportunity to grow a variety of horticulture crops.

Thus, efforts are needed in the direction to capitalize on our strengths and remove constraints to meet the goal of moving towards a formidable horticultural growth in India.

Source  - State of Indian Agriculture 2015-16

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