Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and practices will be essential. The low and very low land productivity
districts offer immense opportunity for production of hardy horticultural
crops with minimum infrastructure support. For sustainable development
and realization of high productivity levels, crop planning based on agro
ecological considerations and efficient use of inputs has been attempted,
only with partial success. Higher productivity levels from the eastern re-
gion (Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam) experiencing
abundant water availability and good soil have not been harnessed fully
so far. Under such circumstances, proper crop selection based on agro-
climatic suitability and levels of consumption of inputs like fertilizers,
pesticides and irrigation water needs careful consideration. Horticultural
developmental activities through perennial fruit orcharding have already
paid high dividends bringing stability in fragile ecosystems (e.g., apple in
Himachal Pradesh, mango and cashew nut in the Western Ghats in Ma-
harashtra and large cardamom in Sikkim). The niche potential of hill and
plateau lands, if properly nurtured with scientific horticultural practices
can bring fortunes and can convert the nonviable, subsistence farming to
economically viable farming. The success story of the Konkan region in
the Western Ghats in commercialization of mango, cashew, black pepper,
etc. demonstrates the possibility of converting once barren hilly tracts into
economically viable regions. Both Himachal apple and Konkan cashew
nut have shown that productivity can be achieved on a sustainable basis
without adverse effects on the environment. Both in the North Eastern
Region and in coastal areas, diversification of cropped area with high-
value horticultural crops has been successful. Coastal areas have already
been used for plantation crops and spices; further growth is possible in the
coastal ecoregions with transfer of relevant technologies.
4.10.2 OPTIMIZATION OF LAND USE IN HORTICULTURE
PRODUCTION SYSTEM
Rapid increase in population of the country has necessitated parallel in-
crease in productivity of horticultural crops as well as improving the land
use efficiency. Techniques like fruit based multitier cropping systems,
high-density orcharding in fruit crops, etc. have proven their effectiveness
for improving the land use efficiency through better utilization of land,
space and solar radiation. The multitier cropping system comprise of a
