Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
vegetables are present in eastern India as compared to a total of 5166 num-
bers at all India level. Among all the eastern states, the maximum number
of processing units is present in the state of West Bengal (308) followed
by Eastern Uttar Pradesh (170). A total of 1504 number of cold storages
are available in eastern India compared to 5381 numbers at national level
(27.95%). However, eastern India has 46.05% of total storage capacity at
national level. Among the different eastern states, Eastern Uttar Pradesh
has the highest number of cold storage units (556) whereas West Bengal
has the maximum storage capacity (5,682,000 MT).
4.4 PROJECTED REQUIREMENT OF HORTICULTURAL
PRODUCE IN THE EASTERN REGION
Considering 30% post harvest loss, the total availability of fruits in eastern
region is 9.3752 million tons. Hence, the per capita availability of fruits
in eastern region is about 65.96 g/day, which is much below than the di-
etary requirement of about 120 g/day (total population of 389.37 million).
The present requirement of total fruit production to meet the minimum
dietary requirement is 17.0542 million tons. Considering a population of
448.3210 million in eastern India by the year 2026, the total fruit require-
ment in eastern India will be 24.5455 million tons (with post harvest loss
of 20% considering improved scenario of post harvest management of
fruits and vegetables). To meet the gap, an additional area of 0.8621 mil-
lion ha has to be brought under fruit cultivation considering increase in
productivity to level of 12.0 t/ha. For this, about 344.84 million numbers
of quality saplings will be needed.
At present the total vegetable availability in eastern India considering
a post harvest loss of 30% is 44.9887 million tons. Hence, the per capita
availability of vegetables in eastern India is 316.56 g, which is above the
minimum dietary requirement of 300 g. At national level, there is a deficit
of 38.67 million tons of vegetables to meet the minimum dietary require-
ment of entire population at present level of post harvest losses. The total
vegetable requirement to meet the minimum dietary requirement of east-
ern India by 2026 will be 61.3639 million tons only (with post harvest
loss of 20% considering improved scenario of post harvest management
of fruits and vegetables). Hence, the region can play a major role to ful-
fill the vegetable demand at national level. For this, there will be urgent
