The country has witnessed a massive growth in horticulture produce – particularly fruits and vegetables – over the last five years. According to the Economic Survey 2015-16, while the area under horticulture crops increased by 18 percent during 2010-15, the food grain sector acreage grew by only 5 per cent.

The report, presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the parliament, today, highlighted that the production of horticulture crops in India has outpaced the production of food grain since 2012-13.

During 2013-14, the production of horticulture crops was about 283.5 million tonnes from an area of 24.2 million hectares. Out of the six categories – fruits, vegetables, flowers, aromatic plants, spices and plantation crops – fruit production during 2013-14 registered the highest annual growth of 9.5 percent.

Over the last decade, the area under horticulture cultivation grew by about 2.7 percent per annum with the annual production going up by 7 percent. The report also indicates that production of vegetables in the country has jumped 185 percent – up from 58,532 thousand tonnes in 1991-92 to 1,67,058 thousand tonnes in 2014-15.