Growth of Area and Production of Selected Horticulture crops in the States under the Scheme Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayan States of India

: Utilizing the secondary data the paper examines the growth rates of area and production of vegetables and fruits among the states under the scheme Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayan States for the time periods 1991-92, 2001-02, 2010-11 and 2017-18. Our study reveals that growth rates of vegetables and fruits were fluctuating in the reference period. However, growth rate in fruits was less fluctuated compared to the growth rate of vegetables. Among the states under the scheme, Uttarakhand was found to be the most remarkable in terms of improvement in the productivity of fruit crops and Himachal Pradesh in terms of productivity of vegetables. It is found that among the states under study, the change in production of fruits and vegetables was the least in Arunachal Pradesh over the same period.

The states those under the HMNEH scheme comprise of eleven states of India namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Tripura, Jammu & Kashmir (undivided), Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. These states are engaged in cultivation and production of various horticulture crops which are highly rich in vitamins, protein and minerals. The Himalayan states of India are bestowed with wide range of climatic condition which provides the congenial climate for cultivation of various horticulture crops (Pandey and Joshi, 1997). These states has land share of about 18 per cent of the total area of the country and has around 6 per cent of population of the country. In terms of population engaged in agriculture, more than 50 per cent are dependent on it (Census 2011). Centre government has been allocating funds for the promotion and rejuvenation of horticulture crops in these states. Hence, in this backdrop, present study aims to find the growth trends of area as well as production of selected horticulture crops of various states under the Scheme HMNEH over the last four time periods. First part of the paper deals with the basic information about scheme and second section deals with literature review followed by objectives, methodology section and results and discussion of the study. Last section concludes the findings of the present study.

II. Literature Review
India has the advantage of agro-climatic condition that provides a good scope for production of various horticulture crops and due to this, horticulture is the fastest growing sector within the agriculture sector. This growth further induced by the changing consumer preference for high value horticulture crops (Ramapa et al., 2015). India is among the highest producer of fruits and vegetables and it stand second position in the world.
Within India also, fruits and vegetables constitute the main crops among the horticulture crops (Kumari and Singh, 2019). According to them, this sector has a great potential in higher income generation along with the employment. Further, the sector has chances of eliminating poverty, reducing hunger and malnutrition. The share of fruits and vegetables was increasing since 1990s (Birthal et al., 2007). It has been identified as a good source of nutritional security and has a great potential for generating further economic activities in terms of marketing, distribution, etc (Mousumi et al., 2020). It is observed that the diversification towards horticulture provides better alternative with higher return (Ramapa et al., 2015). Further, it has been found that diversification was higher towards horticulture crops and within that, fruits and vegetables occupied significant area. In terms of demand also, demand for fruits and vegetables is higher compared to other crops. Additionally, various schemes pertaining to horticulture also stimulate the growth rate of these crops (Ramapa et al., 2015).
According to Birthal et al., (2007), consumption pattern was more diversified towards high value commodities such as fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, diary etc and the potential to increase in demand for staple crops has limited and stagnated. This change in food basket among the Indian consumer was spurred by the higher rate of growth of urban population. According to them, most of the states under their study allocated higher portion of land for the cultivation of fruits and vegetables during the period 1980 to 2003. However, as per Birthal et al., Y. Melo and A.K. Das Growth of Area and Production of Selected Horticulture crops… ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (2007), despite of higher prospects, it is difficult for the poor farmers to completely adopt the horticulture sector as it need higher time period to reap the benefit of horticulture crops, especially fruits. Further, this sector needs higher investment and most of the poor farmers do not have savings and credit facilities to invest in this sector.
Thus in this area, government help in terms of financial incentives may encourage the farmers to take up the opportunity in this sector. Furthermore, productivity in horticulture was found low despite of increasing in area expansion and production thus this area may need to be focused (Mousumi et al., 2020).
North East region comprises of seven states and constitutes nearly 70 per cent hills with number of rivers and streams (Ganguly, J.B, 1998). The region has immense potential for development of horticulture and occupied cultivated area share of around 19 per cent with Sikkim being highest share followed by Manipur. (DE, L.C., 2017). It is identified that promoting organic farming as well as local resources based farming are sustainable and environment friendly as the existing food security leaving millions of poor hungry (Bharat Dogri, 2022). Thus, the region has great scope for promotion of this sector for its socio-economic development.
However, according to Birthal et al., (2007), the region is considered as most backward in terms of agriculture despite of having favourable agro-climatic conditions for horticulture development. Lack of infrastructure and underdeveloped market has also been identified as a basic factor for backwardness. As per their study, about 15 per cent of household grows fruits at national level while 4.7 per cent of North east region household grow fruit and about 4.6 per cent grow vegetables at national level and North East 66.9 per cent vegetables.

III. Objectives
Present study is an attempt to evaluate the growth trends of area as well as production of horticulture crops of various states under the Scheme HMNEH over the four time periods 1991-92, 2001-02, 2010-11 and 2017-18.

IV. Data Sources and Methodology
For the purpose of analyzing the trend in area, production and productivity of fruits and vegetables, the states under the scheme HMNEH are selected. To fulfill the objective of the study, secondary data pertaining to area and production of fruits and vegetables of four periods, that is,

Geographical Area
India has total geographical area of 3287469 Sq. Km of which the Himalayan states, as considered in the study, occupied around 12.98 per cent. Among them Arunachal Pradesh occupied highest (2.55 per cent) followed by Assam (2.39 per cent). Sikkim has the lowest area share among the Himalayan states under the HMNEH scheme as shown in Table 1.  Table 2 shows the percentage of people engaged in agriculture (main cultivator+agriculture labour) and from the table it is clear that about 55 per cent of country's working population are engaged in agriculture and around 51 per cent of HMNEH states' population dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Among the HMNEH states, states whose half percentage of population engaged in agriculture are Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and rest have less than 50 per cent dependent on agriculture but above 40 per cent.

Y. Melo and A.K. Das
Growth of Area and Production of Selected Horticulture crops… ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________  Table 3 shows plan wise allocation of fund in agriculture and allied sector. Among the four plans i.e IX th , X th , XI th and XII th plan, horticulture received highest in XI th plan (11.59 per cent) out of the total allocated in agriculture and allied sector.

Fund Allocated for Horticulture promotion in HMNEH States
With the motive to improve the productivity along with the area expansion and higher production of horticulture crops in the Himalayan states of the country, government has been allocating central fund since the inception of the scheme.    Area under fruit crop among the HMNEH states are shown in Table 6 and the table shows   In Table 7 1991-2001 2001-2010 2010-2017 Area under Fruits Area under Vegetables Table 8 depicts that Assam was producing highest per cent of vegetables among the HMNEH states in the whole study period. Apart from Assam, three more states were also producing more than 10 per cent among the states in consideration are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
Assam was also producing highest per cent of fruit during the year 1991-92 and 2001-02 but Jammu and Kashmir has surpassed Assam in the year 2010-11. Again in 2017-18, Uttarakhand surpassed Jammu and Kashmir and became the highest contributor of fruit production among the HMNEH states. Assam is still occupying the third position in terms of production of fruits with the production share of more than 10 per cent.
Besides these three states, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura have leading share in the percentage of fruit production among the considered states. In Table 9, State wise growth rate of production of fruits and vegetables shows that except for the states Mizoram and Manipur, all the other HMNEH states were experiencing fluctuation in the growth rate of fruits and vegetables, especially in the growth rate of fruits. Himachal Pradesh was experiencing both negative and positive growth rate of production of fruits from the period 1991-92 to 2017-18 while growth rate of vegetables was positive during the same period. In case of Tripura, except for the period 2010-11 to 2017-18, growth rate of fruit production was positive. On the other hand, vegetable growth rate was positive for the whole study period for the State. On the other hand, growth rate in fruit production was positive for whole study period for Jammu and Kashmir but for vegetables, the state was experiencing negative growth rate in production during the year 1991- Change from 2001-02 also computed and presented in Table 9 which reveals that production was increased from 2001-02 to 2017-18 and Uttarakhand was highest in terms of production of fruits followed by Mizoram and Sikkim. Arunachal Pradesh has lowest change over the same period. In terms of production of vegetables also, Manipur has the highest per cent followed by Mizoram, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh. To be precise, the result reveals that Mizoram and Sikkim have developed both in terms of area as well as production of fruits and vegetables. Uttarakhand has progressed highest in terms of area expansion as well as in production of fruits.
Manipur and Himachal Pradesh excelled in expanding area under vegetables and production of vegetables.

VI. Conclusion
Study reveal that the growth rate in area under vegetables was negative in 1991-2001 and in 2001-2010 but in terms of production, it was positive over the study period. Growth rate of fruits was positive over the same period both in terms of growth rate in area as well as in terms of production. Compared to vegetable growth rate, growth rate of fruits was more stable, though fluctuation found, this may be because of the perennial nature of fruits crops. State level analysis result also demonstrates that Meghalaya was constant i.e. during 1991-2001, in the sense that the growth rate of production was negative when there was a negative growth rate in area and positive when there was a positive growth rate in area expansion. Growth rate of fruits was higher than vegetables and growth rate in production was higher than the growth rate in area (except in 2001-2010 both in terms of area and production). Area growth rate for Manipur was negative for fruits but positive for production growth rate in 2010-2017 which shows the improvement in productivity. For Arunachal Pradesh also, negative in growth rate in area under fruits in 2010-2017 but in terms of growth rate in production, it was positive which implies improvement in productivity. In Sikkim, area growth rate was positive over the study period but negative in terms of production growth rate in 1991-2001 but with the passage of time, its productivity improved which is visible from positive and higher growth rate in production. Growth rate of fruits was better than vegetables for Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand over the study period. As the scheme launched in 2000s a comparison has been made to examine whether the area as well as production of crops has been improved over the years and from the analysis it has been found that in 2001-2010 area has been increased for the states Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Mizoram