FOCUS ON HIGH VALUE AGRI

Achieving 'Green Revolution-plus' through horticulture alongside productivity boosts in our staples is key to the 'Viksit Bharat' strategy

- Ashok Dalwai

India, with an agriculture output of over 1,300 million tonnes (MT) in 2023-24, is food secure. However, nutritional deficiency, low farmer incomes and ecological unsustainability continue to remain our bane. The country's historically pluralistic platter of agri-produce is challenged by an agricultural management that prefers specialisation over diversification. Crop diversification involves practising a range of agricultural/cropping systems to meet society's demands, aligned with the location's agroecology and national priorities. In 2018, the Committee on Doubling Farmers' Income (DFI) submitted its report to the government, which recommended that they adopt high-value agriculture (HVA), including horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries. In 2015-16, horticulture, with just 7 per cent of the net cultivated area, contributed 25 per cent to the agricultural GVA (gross value added).