HORTICULTURE IN KASHMIR
INTRODUCTION
During the past few years, demand for high value crops has been showing much faster growth than demand for food grains. With this backdrop, diversification towards horticultural crops has been suggested as a viable option to stabilize and raise farm income, enhance agricultural growth and increase employment opportunities.
HORTICULTURE
Horticulture has emerged as an indispensable part of agriculture, offering a wide range of choices to the farmers for crop diversification. It also provides ample opportunities for sustaining large number of agro based industries which generate substantial employment opportunities. India is the world’s second largest producer of fruits like of banana, mango, sapotas and acid limes and enjoys reputation for highest productivity in grapes. India occupies prime position in the production of cauliflower and pea, second in onions, cabbage, tomato and brinjal, and third in cabbage in the world.
HORTICULTURE IN KASHMIR
Jammu and Kashmir is home to some world famous varieties of fresh and dry fruits, honey and saffron. Horticulture is one of the most vibrant sectors of the state economy which provides direct as well as indirect employment to the state population. Apples are the major Producer of Jammu and Kashmir. Horticulture industry in Jammu and Kashmir is considered as bulwark of the rural economy in the state. Nearly 75 percent of temperate fruits in India are grown in the state. The cultivated orchards yield fine quality of pears, apples, peaches, cherries, walnut, almond, saffron, apricot, strawberry, plums etc. The agro climatic conditions prove highly suitable for growth and development of fruits and various wild herbs. Local soil is deep and rich in organic matter and access to human resources for farm labour is abundant. The horticulture industry also serves as a great advantage to the state due to its monopoly on walnuts, almonds, pears, cherries, hazelnuts, pecan nuts, strawberries and kiwi fruits.
HORTICULTURE AND SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
There is a relationship between horticultural production and overall socioeconomic development. Horticulture encourages agricultural business development in the rural economy and generates income and employment. Growers learn to manage multiple cropping systems and deliver quality outputs on time by fulfilling contractual arrangements and dealing with sophisticated marketing systems. The management skills need for successful horticulture is the very skills required for socioeconomic development to take off. These skills enable farmers to run other kind of businesses. Horticulture production improves availability of micro-nutrient rich foods and consumption of micro nutrient rich foods improves health, learning capacity and working capacity of the population. All these factors collectively enhance working efficiency, thus facilitate and stimulate socioeconomic development of economy.
CONCLUSION
Horticulture sector serves as a highly contributing industry to the state’s economy. Out of the total area of horticulture in the state, 90 percent is concentrated in the valley due to its suitable climate. Due to continuous increasing trend in the production and export of fresh and dry fruits the agricultural land gets diversified into horticultural land and increasing production of horticultural. The unique climatic conditions of the state facilitate the growth of diverse vegetation including horticulture. However, the sector is adversely affected due to lack of marketing strategy. Considering the growth prospects of this sector, the state government needs to plan for higher and more quality production. The state should shift its agriculture development strategy from food security mode to that of value addition by growing certain products like high value fruits, vegetables and cash crops like saffron that can give high returns.
