Studies on the Production of Fruits in India

Studies on the production of fruits in India with special reference to Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

Fruits provide desirable health benefits besides nutrition due to presence of various essential vitamins and minerals. Many important antioxidants are present in fruits that help the body to constantly clean up the toxic wastes. They boost the immunity and provide resistance against various ailments and certain chronic diseases. They have cracking potential to increase the economic impact of the state, country at local, national and international level. India is the second largest producer of fruits in the world with production of 81.29 million metric tonnes from an area of 6.98 million hectares for the year 2012-13. Jammu and Kashmir, the northern most state of India have different environmental and topographical conditions than rest of the country, produces many horticultural products. It is the largest producer of apples in India, 77% of apple production in India belongs to Jammu and Kashmir. After harvest considerable losses occur due to ignorance, method of storage, postharvest handling and absence of postharvest processing. Awareness about nutritional, environment and economic valves, improved cultivation, use of appropriate postharvest handling strategies are important to minimize the losses.

Keywords: antioxidant, area, production, postharvest, horticulture

Introduction

Nutritional importance of fruits

Fruits contain a number of essential minerals, vitamins, dietary fibers and play essential role in human nutrition especially as a source of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), thiamine (vitamin B1), niacin (vitamin B3), pyridoxine (vitamin B6), folacin (vitamin B9), tocopherol (vitamin E), riboflavin (vitamin A), calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, potassium (Wargovich, 2000). There contribution is estimated at 91% of vitamin C, 48% of thiamine, 30% of folacin, 27% of pyridoxine, 17% of vitamin B1, 15% of vitamin B3, 19% of Iron, 16% of magnesium, 9% of calories (Quebedeaux and Elis, 1990; Kader, 2001).

Fruits and vegetables in human diet are strongly associated with the reduced risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’ disease, cataracts, strokes and other chronic diseases (Prior and Cao, 2000; Southon, 2000; Liu, 2003). Some components of fruits and vegetables are strong antioxidants and function in metabolic activation and detoxification of various carcinogens (Kader, 2001).

Economic importance of fruits

India comprises several agro-ecological regions with diverse soil and climate types, which provide an ample opportunity to grow variety of crops. A considerable degree of crop diversification has been experienced since the green revolution. The change in cropping pattern is towards the horticultural and commercial crops (Mittal, 2007). Horticultural crops form significant part of total agricultural production of the country and are key drivers of economic development. In India 65-70% of the population earns their livelihood through agriculture (Economic survey, 2007-08). Fruits contribute around 31% of horticultural production (Vedamurthy and Pandey, 2010). The increase in domestic and international demand for fruits in increasing day by day thereby increasing the economic importance of fruits. Contribution of horticultural crops towards agricultural GDP was about 29.5% for the year 2007-08 (Economic survey, 2007-08).

Fruit Production in India

India is the world’s second largest producer of fruits after Brazil that contributes 11.80% of the total world’s fruit production with a production of 68.46 million tonnes from an area of 6.10 million hectares annually (Kumar and Singh, 2010). In India the major fruit producing states are Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Punjab, Orissa and Utter Pradesh

Factors leading to decrease in fruit production

The major losses of fruits are estimated at 35-40% due to improper post harvest management that is about 40,000 crores per year. It so causes the wastage of energy, labour and inputs involved in horticultural production (Nayak and Mukhopadhyay, 2008). So there is a strong need for the post harvest management of these perishable fruits. Post harvest management strategies are applied to the horticultural produce after harvest to increase their shelf life during storage, processing, packaging and marketing to meet the nutritional requirements of the people.

Majors that can be taken to overcome the losses

Table 1: World fruit production in metric tonnes

Fruit

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

Afghanistan

794,600

816,730

645,870

706,224

847,900

Albania

118,400

151,400

167,782

141,489

370,192

Algeria

1,995,071

1,201,968

978,664

1,428,102

3,535,544

American Samoa

3,850

1,642

1,463

1,982

1,440

Angola

430,000

427,000

405,000

447,000

608,100

Antigua and Barbuda

6,749

8,540

8,511

9,518

8,570

Argentina

5,217,423

6,353,140

5,881,204

7,174,114

7,445,843

Armenia

..

..

..

244,352

351,405

Australia

2,114,328

2,168,155

2,384,181

3,084,329

3,312,766

Austria

1,096,963

1,082,399

964,144

1,091,955

734,800

Azerbaijan

..

..

..

553,959

891,021

Bahamas

9,175

12,409

11,077

26,312

37,000

Bahrain

17,580

42,000

10,150

21,465

22,090

Bangladesh

1,407,439

1,304,358

1,332,490

1,361,000

3,954,957

Barbados

2,490

2,610

2,850

2,560

4,090

Belarus

..

..

..

299,100

790,071

Belgium

..

..

..

786,210

571,630

Belize

35,405

83,428

141,662

381,421

376,790

Benin

121,300

142,300

180,662

163,023

398,700

Bermuda

565

500

300

336

370

Bhutan

23,350

29,450

64,535

64,710

60,900

Bolivia

469,540

555,635

783,195

999,658

944,470

Bosnia and Herzegovina

..

..

..

80,273

321,265

Botswana

6,318

9,150

11,545

10,600

5,920

Brazil

11,465,728

19,473,797

29,823,592

36,986,742

39,286,781

British Virgin Islands

309

550

180

440

520

Brunei Darussalam

3,445

4,810

5,024

6,133

7,535

Bulgaria

2,300,776

1,897,597

1,649,569

739,549

396,332

Burkina Faso

41,600

55,200

69,831

90,954

96,450

Burundi

1,247,000

1,168,000

1,633,000

1,598,146

238,464

Cambodia

270,050

122,340

239,050

321,700

355,900

Cameroon

983,457

1,713,340

1,756,896

1,994,151

3,878,820

Canada

628,394

795,589

772,777

823,210

668,968

Cape Verde

13,824

12,600

14,615

16,778

20,800

Cayman Islands

516

583

314

558

325

Central African Republic

129,820

168,800

201,900

259,399

274,550

Chad

83,000

92,000

106,423

98,068

117,500

Chile

1,061,240

1,633,588

2,638,980

3,890,170

5,673,600

China

4,973,710

8,416,030

20,952,155

64,503,111

122,184,944

Colombia

2,761,100

3,897,150

4,676,996

6,851,039

7,989,940

Comoros

28,000

35,600

51,132

62,615

47,800

Congo

68,700

113,070

135,844

222,622

263,800

Congo, DR

2,134,500

2,627,600

3,450,844

2,426,781

2,540,724

Cook Islands

15,850

12,525

4,782

3,677

1,526

Costa Rica

1,299,210

1,337,764

2,410,266

3,810,786

4,620,366

Croatia

..

..

..

540,881

458,235

Cuba

306,012

853,467

1,535,526

2,251,114

1,794,869

Cyprus

432,319

344,802

393,246

282,984

185,661

Czech Republic

..

..

..

562,195

181,221

Cote d’Ivoire

1,001,352

1,464,548

1,569,720

2,347,117

2,187,000

Denmark

163,961

146,608

102,268

54,840

68,500

Djibouti

0

0

1,956

3,457

3,185

Dominica

63,100

35,760

96,771

69,805

53,830

Dominican Republic

1,169,659

1,340,100

1,599,980

1,032,324

2,196,055

Ecuador

3,781,542

3,966,510

4,524,825

7,670,506

9,292,075

Egypt

1,450,330

2,284,135

4,617,539

6,966,124

9,581,146

El Salvador

194,450

251,282

291,084

302,098

439,319

Equatorial Guinea

13,500

10,500

40,600

51,039

69,200

Eritrea

..

..

..

3,800

4,400

Estonia

..

..

..

26,538

5,071

Ethiopia

..

..

..

703,202

683,500

Fiji

8,612

10,685

12,846

18,006

18,628

Finland

62,700

104,000

21,092

18,661

16,793

France

17,040,995

14,601,267

11,942,965

11,265,355

8,691,815

French Guiana

4,540

2,021

6,763

15,707

17,610

French Polynesia

2,544

3,171

7,741

9,728

15,483

Gabon

123,300

190,900

240,001

294,226

324,710

Gambia

3,000

3,500

3,517

5,607

8,600

Georgia

..

..

..

471,917

260,000

Germany

5,367,781

4,750,807

4,854,934

5,290,538

2,200,529

Ghana

1,034,097

978,300

923,900

2,391,420

4,363,630

Greece

3,003,094

3,519,917

3,922,607

4,151,486

3,230,090

Grenada

34,255

27,518

25,811

16,631

14,600

Guadeloupe

132,280

88,577

116,416

142,661

87,390

Guam

747

1,089

1,873

2,380

3,220

Guatemala

659,100

753,791

1,150,517

1,973,393

3,951,700

Guinea

545,000

673,100

855,803

997,310

1,218,700

Guinea-Bissau

36,700

46,750

61,403

79,888

87,050

Guyana

42,167

32,710

50,249

73,963

33,615

Haiti

799,800

1,003,600

1,016,171

1,005,481

976,660

Honduras

1,499,923

1,646,227

1,388,235

783,281

1,357,185

Hungary

2,030,432

2,531,215

2,306,901

1,726,674

1,124,272

Iceland

13

10

11

17

30

India

15,786,680

20,357,397

27,717,104

43,000,880

84,791,100

Indonesia

3,576,000

4,268,214

5,973,043

8,412,930

14,867,762

Iran

1,784,725

3,144,125

7,163,554

12,287,684

12,126,041

Iraq

542,880

1,155,020

1,523,030

1,739,200

1,094,014

Ireland

32,500

23,200

23,000

26,334

48,170

Israel

1,548,475

1,926,160

2,002,746

1,263,269

1,278,486

Italy

19,349,138

21,429,443

17,112,381

17,989,619

16,907,895

Jamaica

396,869

332,255

360,046

425,044

363,608

Japan

5,552,900

6,227,900

4,905,691

3,820,890

2,898,550

Jordan

61,370

86,155

255,408

238,727

279,918

Kazakhstan

..

..

..

263,490

222,110

Kenya

534,110

1,126,610

1,303,636

2,148,118

2,933,336

Kiribati

3,370

4,530

5,000

5,649

9,400

Korea, North

218,000

848,000

1,305,000

1,333,157

1,559,200

Korea, South

429,259

933,406

1,917,459

2,625,572

2,733,554

Kuwait

470

1,113

1,933

11,250

18,353

Kyrgyzstan

..

..

..

188,139

197,601

Laos

75,650

90,300

128,500

192,967

238,200

Latvia

..

..

..

53,992

14,608

Lebanon

561,776

721,100

1,185,000

845,600

976,290

Lesotho

14,000

15,000

17,709

14,500

14,700

Liberia

98,020

120,200

106,779

170,662

208,700

Libya

82,132

179,145

311,644

314,710

386,050

Liechtenstein

120

70

130

156

180

Lithuania

..

..

..

112,500

47,719

Luxembourg

..

..

..

33,632

26,652

Macedonia

..

..

..

407,811

452,643

Madagascar

623,775

733,033

796,700

890,600

941,460

Malawi

260,000

374,950

481,428

755,498

1,032,600

Malaysia

865,300

938,073

1,108,638

1,210,733

1,144,862

Maldives

6,050

7,900

6,350

9,560

10,051

Mali

98,100

124,800

155,060

251,993

814,100

Malta

11,871

10,563

13,729

6,457

10,085

Martinique

184,928

116,929

284,295

355,478

208,860

Mauritania

17,300

15,200

12,087

24,900

23,000

Mauritius

8,948

3,583

8,370

13,076

21,285

Mexico

4,478,970

7,617,469

9,371,183

13,306,460

15,255,598

Micronesia, FM

..

..

..

3,088

3,830

Moldova

..

..

..

953,163

792,435

Mongolia

2,250

3,200

400

255

578

Montenegro

..

..

..

..

74,338

Montserrat

1,129

800

629

880

830

Morocco

1,466,620

1,670,800

2,008,842

2,680,770

3,292,411

Mozambique

304,470

322,500

381,400

290,768

368,810

Myanmar

707,502

806,590

950,342

1,416,000

2,135,100

Namibia

6,500

8,000

9,839

16,413

42,225

Nauru

140

200

255

336

340

Nepal

112,000

135,000

413,310

844,633

1,276,791

Netherlands

678,466

618,730

561,700

710,936

671,390

New Caledonia

9,000

11,634

2,576

3,723

3,733

New Zealand

241,574

356,774