The horticulture sector encompasses a wide range of crop cultivation such as fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, flowers, spices, plantations, medicinal and aromatic plants. India, with its wide variability of climate and soil, is highly favourable for growing a large variety of horticultural crops. It is the fastest growing sector within agriculture. After the Green Revolution in mid-sixties, it became clear that horticulture is the best option to increase agriculture growth rate. The horticultural production has surpassed the production statistics of field crops. On the global map, India is one of the leading exporters of fruits & vegetables with an export of approximate INR 38.56 billion, comprising of INR 26.35 billion worth of fruits & INR 12.21 billion of vegetables. The nation is the largest producer of okra amongst vegetables & ranks second in production of potatoes (10%), onions, cauliflowers, brinjal, cabbages, etc. It is also the largest producer & consumer of cashew nuts and is the third largest producer of coconut and leads 90 coconut-producing countries of the world.
The most significant development that happened in the last decade is that horticulture has moved from rural confines to commercial production and this changing scenario has encouraged private sector investment in production system management. The recent years have seen technological infusions like micro-irrigation, precision farming, greenhouse cultivation and improved post-harvest management impacting the development.
Many national and international organizations are playing important role in promoting the latest technologies and are researching on emerging problems of farmers.
In this view, at SGT University we prepare our students to get familiarize about these problems and their effective solutions. Recently, the students attended an International Conference on Horticulture & Horti Expo 2018 at IARI Mela ground, New Delhi from 25 to 27 October 2018 organized by Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA). This is one of the ways to understand the present scenario in horticulture which helps to develop problem-solving skills. Horticulture is the future of agriculture in the global market. Lots of opportunities are waiting for budding agriculturists in this sector.
-Dr. Vinita Rajput
Assistant Professor- Horticulture
