Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and till date this country is the largest producer of litchi in the world. His-
tory envisages that being very fastidious in its climatic requirement and a
poorly researched crop, its spread from China to other parts of the world
was slow till recent past. Now realizing the commercial viability, export
potential and high nutritive and therapeutic values, much attention is be-
ing paid for its research and developmental aspects. India is second largest
producer with relatively higher productivity and the best quality of litchi
is produced in this country.
Bihar particularly is located in the eastern part of the country (between
83°-30' to 88°-00' longitude), and lies mid-way between the humid West
Bengal in the east and the sub humid Uttar Pradesh in the west which pro-
vides it with a transitional position mainly in respect of climate. Though
endowed with good soil, adequate rainfall and good ground water avail-
ability but yet to get realized its full production (agricultural/horticulture)
potential. Its agricultural productivity is one of the lowest in the country,
leading to rural poverty, low nutrition and migration of labor. This study
is an overview of the state of knowledge applied to deal with the various
climatic issues and concerns for sustainable litchi fruit production in East-
ern India.
6.2
STATUS OF PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY
India and China account for 91% of litchi production in the world. Though,
China is the largest producer of litchi, India enjoys the prominent position
in the litchi production status map of the world in terms of production
and productivity. Over the years, India has recorded significant growth in
production and productivity of litchi, though trend is not consistent (Singh
et al., 2012). Being specific in climatic and soil requirements, litchi has
limited distribution. Cultivation intensity of litchi varies even within this
country and its cultivation is restricted in the foothills of Himalayas from
Tripura to Jammu and Kashmir and plains of Uttar Pradesh to Madhya
Pradesh. Commercial cultivation of litchi in India is confined to north Bi-
har, submountainous region of Uttar Pradesh and Hoogly basins of West
Bengal (Pandey and Sharma, 1989; Rai et al., 2001). The production area
thus stretches from north to eastern region of the country with more con-
centrated locations lying in eastern region only. In this country, the fruit
crop production statistics shows that litchi ranks 10th in area and 11th in
 
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