After reading this article you will learn about the vegetable crops that are found in India.
Vegetables, defined as those herbaceous plants of which some portion is eaten, either cooked or raw, during the principal part of the meal, constitute an important segment of our agricultural system. Starchy vegetables like potato, sweet potato, cassava and yam are rich sources of carbohydrates.
Legume vegetables like peas and beans are rich in proteins. Besides, vegetables in general are good sources of vitamins, minerals and fibres. A lot of valuable data on vegetable area, production and productivity is available in Indian Horticulture Database-2009 as compiled by Bijay Kumar (2010) of National Horticulture Board, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India and also available on the website www(dot)nhb(dot)gov(dot)in.
Most of the times difficulties arise in quoting and comparing vegetable area and production from different sources due to the fact that in some cases, vegetable area and production figures include potato, sweet potato and tapioca and exclude chillies by merging chillies in spices.
In some cases, potato, sweet potato and tapioca are included in vegetables and chillies included or excluded. As per Indian Horticulture Database-2009, the vegetables area and production figures include potato, sweet potato and cassava and yam and exclude chillies which have been included in spices.
With this clarification, world vegetable area and production including potato, sweet potato, cassava and yam and excluding chillies during 2008-09 have been 56 million hectares and 966 million tons as compiled by National Horticulture Board.
Excluding potato, the world vegetable area and production during 2008-09 comes to 38 million ha and 652 million tons. The major vegetables producing countries are given in Table 1.1. The data in Table 1.1 clearly show that China occupies the first rank followed by India and USA.
Per capita availability of vegetables (excluding potato, sweet potato) has been estimated at 183g/capita/day (2005-provisional) in India as mentioned by Johnson (2008) quoting FAOSTAT (2007) and 146 g/capita/day (2004-05) calculated from NSS i.e. National Sample Survey data, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Govt. of India
Considering present population of India as 1.10 billion and vegetable production as 90 million tons, the availability figure comes to 224 g assuming no post-harvest losses. However, post-harvest losses are about 25% and therefore 224 g availability amounts to 168 g/capita/day in India.
In view of these varying figures, it is safer to mention that the average availability of vegetables in India is about 175 g/capita/day which is much lower than the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 300 g/capita/day by dieticians and nutritionists.
India produced 136 million tons of vegetables including potato, sweet potato and tapioca and excluding hot-pepper from 8.21 million hectares in 2009-10. The corresponding figures for vegetable production and area in India excluding potato, sweet potato and topioca and including hot-pepper (generally accepted system) are about 6.72 million ha and 90 million tons.
Vegetable requirement of India is estimated to be 135 million tons. Varied agro-climatic conditions in India make it feasible to grow several vegetable crops round the year in one part of the country or another. India grows the largest number of vegetables in the world. As many as 61 annual and 4 perennial vegetable crops are grown in India.
Some of the important vegetable crops grown in India are as follows:
Brinjal, tomato, chilli, sweet pepper, cabbage, cauliflower, knol-knol, okra, onion, garlic, long melon, muskmelon, snap melon, watermelon, cucumber, pumpkin, summer squash, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, pointed gourd, ridge gourd, round gourd, snake gourd, sponge gourd, ash gourd, carrot, radish, turnip, broad bean, cluster bean, cowpea, dolichos bean, French bean, peas, amaranthus, beet root, beet leaf, fenugreek, spinach, lettuce, drum stick and curry leaf.
Note:
Mushroom production not included: 40,000 tons in 2004-05; total includes potato, sweet potato and tapioca (not included in “Vegetable Others”), while the three spices (ginger, chilli and turmeric) are not included.
Sources:
IASRI (2004): Spices Board of India (2007); remaining data from IASRI (2006) in 1999-2000 to 2002-03 and NHB (2006) in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
Vegetable Area and Production in India:
The relevant information is given in Tables 1.2-1.3.
The production area and volume for major vegetables and selected spices from 1999-2000 to 2004-05 is given in Table 1.4.
A few significant facts emerging from Tables 1.1-1.4 are as follows:
i. World vegetable area and production including potato, sweet potato and tapioca during 2008-09 stand out to be 56 million ha and 966 million tons respectively.
ii. World vegetable area and production excluding potato during 2008-09 stand out to be 38 million ha and 652 million tons respectively.
iii. China ranks first in vegetable area and production including potato with an area of 24 million ha and production of 458 million tons outstripping second placed India significantly. The corresponding area and production figures for India are 8 million ha and 129 million tons.
iv. In traditional sense, India produced 90 million tons of vegetables excluding potato, sweet potato, tapioca and including spices crop hot-pepper from 6.72 million ha area during 2009-10.
v. Vegetable crops occupying sizable area in India during 2009-10 have been as follows:
vi. The states contributing substantially towards potato and vegetable area and production during 2009-10 in India have been as follows:
All India Production and Productivity of Vegetables:
The information from the year 1991-92 to 2008-09 as compiled by NHB (2010) is reproduced in Table 1.5. The compiled information shows that productivity of vegetable crops including potato during 1991-92 has been 10.5 tons/ha and this has gone to 16.2 tons/ha during 2008-09 showing almost 50% jump in the productivity.
This significant jump in the productivity could be attributed to several factors like improved production technology, widespread use of seed of improved cultivars and lately that of hybrids developed by private sector seed companies.
The total quantity of vegetables export and the value received during 1994-95 and 1996-97 as compiled by Pandey and Singh (2000) are given in Table 1.6.
Table 1.6 shows that in mid-nineties, export of fresh vegetables including potato was to the tune of 498862 metric tons valued at Rs. 341 crores. Onion has been the predominant component of fresh vegetable export. The export figures for recent years (2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09) are given in Table 1.7.
There has been a very significant increase in the volume and value of fresh onions (1670186 tons worth Rs. 1827 crores in 2008-09 vs. 427011 tons worth Rs. 265 crores in 1996-97) export in 2008-09 as compared to that in 1996-97.
Similar is the trend for other fresh vegetables. Export of vegetables and selected spices like chilli, ginger and turmeric has been worth 259, 305, 408, 428 and 546 million USD in the year 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 respectively.
Specific Requirements of Size, Shape, Colour Etc. of Vegetables for Export:
This information is compiled in Table 1.8 based on Singh and Pandey (1993) and NHB (2010).
