Urban Indian appetite boosts fruit, vegetable acreage

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Rising incomes and greater health awareness, especially among urban Indians, have boosted demand for fruits and vegetables, keeping prices firm and prompting farmers to increase acreage.

Demand has also increased for cereals and pulses, the traditional Indian staple, but their relative share in food basket has gone down due to rising consumption of fruits and vegetables, S. Venkatraman, director, food and agri business, Rabo India Finance, said.

India, the world's second biggest producer of fruits and vegetables, produced 206 million tonnes of horticultural crops in 2007/08, up 41 percent compared to 146.5 million tonnes in 2001/02, government data showed.

In the same period, acreage under horticulture crops rose by 17 percent to 20.2 million hectares.

The area under cereals and pulses, and in some places even the area under cash crops, has been diverted to horticulture, but farmers have also explored barren land for fruits and vegetables, Bijay Kumar, managing director of the National Horticulture Board, told Reuters.

"In the last few years the horticulture sector has been growing at around 6 percent. In the coming years too, we are expecting this rate to stay," Kumar said.

In the next five years horticulture production may cross 270 million tonnes, he said.

"Consumption is rising largely because of increased income levels and also there is a general health consciousness emerging in India, especially in urban areas, about eating healthy," said Rabo India's Venkatraman.