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 B_1, 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
Côte 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

Studies on the Production of Fruits in India

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