AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF HORTICULTURE CULTIVATION AND ITS VIABILITY IN KARNATAKA

Abstract

India is an agrarian economy, as agriculture plays a vital role in the overall development of the country. It is regarded as the back bone of Indian Economy. Being the primary sector, it contributes 15% to GDP (during 2016-17) and engages 49% of the work force ((ICAI), 2016). Agriculture plays a great role in developing industries – which are termed as agro based industries, such as textiles, sugar, biscuits, tea, paper, tobacco etc. The prosperity of these agro based industries directly depends on the availability of inputs and prosperity of the agriculture sector. Apart from this, Agriculture sector contributes greater share to export trade. During 2015-16, agricultural exports constituted 10% of the national exports and India is known for its agricultural exports from time immemorial. Horticulture can be defined as science of growing and management of fruits, vegetables, spices, plantation crops, tubers, ornamental, medicinal & aromatic crops and floriculture that includes not only their production but also processing, value addition and their marketing. Horticultural crops have been referred to as “garden crops”. Horticulture covers all forms of garden management, in particular, it refers to the intensive commercial production of garden crops and falls between domestic gardening and field agriculture. Horticulture is an important branch of agriculture and deals with intensively growing produced plants for human food and non-food uses and for personal or social needs. It involves plant propagation and cultivation with the aim of improving plant growth, yields, quality, nutritional value and resistance to insects, diseases and environmental stresses. It also includes plant conservation, landscape restoration, soil management, landscape and garden design, construction, maintenance and arboriculture (the cultivation of trees and shrubs especially for ornamental purposes). The diverse agro-climatic condition in the country makes it possible to grow almost all varieties of fruits and vegetables. India produces nearly 11% of all the world’s vegetables and 15% of all fruits, yet its share in global exports of vegetables is only 1.7% and in fruits a meager 0.5%. In comparison to India, China is currently the world’s largest fruit and vegetable producer with a production share of 34%. The globalization and commercialization of agricultural trade have also enabled farmers to go for horticultural crops. The horticultural crops are more nutritive and rich in vitamins and minerals as compared to other food crops. This also indicates that there is a vast scope for internal consumption besides having market for these products. The achievement in the horticulture sector is laudable as the sector now consists of more than 30.50 per cent of the GDP of the agriculture sector (India, 2013-14). This paper analyses the potentiality of horticulture in Karnataka and its influence on farmers lives.