Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
production among fruit crops, but in commercial value terms, it rank sixth.
Presently, it is grown in an area of about 74,000 ha, with productivity
level of about 7.0-8.0 t/ha. Of the total production of litchi in India, up to
45.5 percent is contributed by Bihar (Singh et al., 2012). The second larg-
est litchi producing state is West Bengal followed by Tripura and Assam
An interesting feature of distribution of litchi in India is that maturity (of
fruits) commences first in Tripura, followed by West Bengal then Bihar
and lately up to June in northern states. The second week of May to first
week of June is the real time for harvest of litchi fruits in the eastern and
eastern region and more particularly litchi of Bihar starts maturing from
2nd to 4th week of May and continues up to first week of June. Though,
the trend of production and productivity of litchi is constantly increas-
ing in this country, but still there exists a wide gap in between the actual
production and potential production. Litchi has ever-increasing demand in
the national and International market but the present level of production
is unable to cope up the demand. At present it is urgently require to deal
with the issues concerned to intensifying the research needs and exploit
the untapped potential.
6.2.1 CLIMATIC ISSUES AND CONSTRAINTS IN
PRODUCTION
Cultivation of litchi is widely spread in eastern India, which provides live-
lihood opportunities to millions of people in this region. As litchis grow
best in a subtropical climate with high summer temperatures, low and
frost-free winter temperatures, the successful cultivation of litchi is influ-
enced by climatic factors and any deviation from the normal drastically
reduce the fruit yield and quality. The productivity and quality fruit pro-
duction in litchi are strongly affected by the environmental parameters like
temperature, rainfall, photoperiod/light intensity, and moisture content in
the soil and atmospheric humidity. At present, litchi production requires to
readdress the issues related to successful cultivation for economic viabil-
ity, because the productivity continues to be low and a gap exists between
potential and existing yield. The ratio in yield between the best-managed
orchards and national productivity ranges between 2 to 4 times at differ-
ent locations. The probable reasons for low yield seems to be adoption of
traditional production systems, poor technological support and incidence
