National Horticulture Mission (NHM)

The National Horticulture Mission (NHM), launched in 2005-06 under the National Horticulture Board, aims to establish complete development in the horticulture sector. It focuses on improving the production, post-harvest management, and marketing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers while enhancing farmers’ profits and securing their access to nutrition and the prospects of export.

About the National Horticulture Mission

• National Horticulture Mission(NHM) which launched in 2005-06 as the National Horticulture Board, is centrally sponsored scheme to promote complete growth and development in the horticulture sector at India.
• It has primarily focused on increasing production and productivity of various horticultural crops like fruit, vegetables, spices, flowers, medicinal plants, and plantation crops.
• The mission emphasizes adoption of modern technology, improvement of post-harvest management, and establishment of marketing systems that minimize wastage and ensure fair prices to farmers.
• It also provides capacity-building programs, development of nurseries, and establishing infrastructures for cold storage, packaging, and processing. By promoting cluster-based development with improved planting materials, the mission aims to improve domestic consumption and exports.
• The mission intends to make a difference in the economy of the farmers and the horticulture sector to contribute to India’s agricultural economy significantly.

Features of the National Horticulture Mission

The National Horticulture Mission is a central undertaking that pays a significant dollar on the comprehensive development of horticulture in India. Below are some salient features of the mission:

• Promotion of horticultural crops: It is the intensification promotion of fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, medicinal plants, and aromatic plants with a view to diversifying agriculture for income generation among farmers.
• Areas and Productivity Extension: It involves adopting high-yielding varieties, improved planting material, and modern cultivation techniques so as to expand the area under horticulture and enhance productivity.
• Post-Harvest Management and Value Addition: It supports infrastructure establishment like cold storage, pack houses, and processing units to minimize post-harvest losses and improve the value chain of horticultural produce.
• Capacity Building and Human Resource Development: Training and skill development programs include induction for farmers, entrepreneurs, and field workers to adopt best practices and modern technologies.
• Technology Promotion: It also provides the performance of micro-irrigation, protection cultivation, integrated pest management, and organic farming, which is a great contribution toward the sustainability and efficiency of the horticultural practice.
• Market Support Development: Facilities to create marketing infrastructures are given for wholesale markets, rural markets, and e-marketing platforms for better price realization for farmers.
• Cluster-Based Development: Under this, all programs are area-specific crops encouraging an efficient use of resources and thinking to develop a targeted approach.
• Financial Assistance: The mission will give financial assistance and subsidies to the farmers and entrepreneurs for different components of horticulture development.

Objectives of the National Horticulture Mission

Launched with intent to provide total development in the horticulture sector, covering a few areas like fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, medicinal, and aromatic crops, the following are the objectives of such launching:

Increasing Horticulture Production and Productivity

• Trying to increase the area under horticulture crops and enhance their productivity through the adoption of superior varieties, advanced cultivation practices, and modern technologies.

Promotion of Post-Harvest Management

• One of the main goals is to ensure less post-harvest loss through infrastructure improvement related to storage, transportation, processing, and value addition for better marketability and more returns to the farmers.

Market Development and Promotion

• In this pursuit, establishing an efficient supply chain, improving market linkages, and putting in place a strong marketing infrastructure to enhance the accessibility of horticultural produce nationally and internationally.

Capacity Building and Skill Development:

• Capacity-building support through training and knowledge dissemination to the farmers and stakeholders the best practices of modern horticulture in demonstration ways that foster their adoption.

Promotion of Sustainable Horticulture Practices:

• To promote environmentally friendly farming practices such as organic farming, integrated pest management (IPM), and irrigation systems according to water-use efficiency so as to ensure environmental sustainability.

Empowering Farmers and Generating Employment:

• By enhancing productivity and marketing opportunities, NHM functions as an important tool for increasing farmers’ income and providing new employment opportunities in rural areas.

Enhancement of Nutritional and Economic Security:

• Support for horticulture helps to increase nutrition levels and contrarily boost the economy through increased exports in horticultural products.

Significance of the National Horticulture Mission

• For immense importance, India’s agricultural landscape has meant a huge difference in socio-economic development and environmental sustainability.
• This growing demand for diversification in agriculture has been injected by initiating the program in 2005-06. Its objectives include supporting the cultivation of high-value horticultural crops for fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, and medicinal plants.
• The most important thing related to this is improving farmers’ incomes. This has transitioned farmers from subsistence farming to market-oriented horticulture by promoting the use of improved technology, high-yielding varieties, and efficient post-harvest management practices.
• All these have brought additional income to farmers and reduced rural poverty, particularly in regions where traditional agriculture is not financially viable.
• It adds substantially to the nutritional security of the population by increasing access to the most essential dietary components, fruits and vegetables.
• Strengthening the supply chain, investments in cold storage, processing units, marketing infrastructure, and post-harvest losses ensure the availability of fresh produce.
• Creating opportunities for both rural and urban employment is also an aspect where this mission contributes to generation, by way of farming, processing, packaging, and marketing. Export-oriented, thus, promoting horticulture projects boosts the global trade footprint of India.
• Eco-friendly It integrates different technologies along with organic farming, resource-efficient irrigation, and integrated pest management, creating an ecological balance.
• And it also supports itself in crop diversification by reducing the dependency on water-consuming cereals.
• The National Horticulture Mission may be marked as an exemplary scheme for the overall economic growth, enhancement of quality of life, and sustainability in agriculture, thus establishing a firm pillar for India’s agricultural policy.

Lacunae of the National Horticulture Mission

• The National Horticulture Mission (NHM) has contributed significantly to India’s horticulture sector; however, there are still many loopholed aspects that hinder full potential attainment.
• Firstly, the program is impeded in reaching equitable regional distribution of benefits. States with good infrastructure and good awareness receive the attention and fund, which in turn leaves the backward region dangling for support. Such uneven focus prevents the uniform growth of the horticulture sector across the country.
• Secondly, small and marginal farmers, the backbone of horticulture, find it very difficult to avail NHM benefits. The rigid procedure, poor awareness, and lack of funds limit their entry. Besides, poor training and technical backstopping for farmers discourages the adoption of modern horticulture practices.
• A lot of post-harvest losses are still being encountered. Unavailability of proper cold storage, poor transport networks, and wrong supply chain management lead to acute wastages of produce. Post-harvest infrastructure development is part of the NHM, but this is rarely taken up effectively and with sincerity.
• In addition, marketing and export mechanisms are also poorly developed. Farmers face a lot of difficulties to get an appropriate price for their products due to limited market linkages, lack of organized farmer cooperatives, and heavy dependence on middlemen for sale of their produce.
• There is also not much work on the monitoring and evaluation of NHM schemes. An impact concerning delay and poor project implementation can be attributed to limited feedback and accountability on time.
• Lastly, climate change and water scarcity present newer challenges to horticulture, while NHM has minimal provisions to address these challenges thus far. The most challenging area for improvement is putting in sustainable practices and climate-resilient crops within the framework of this mission.

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Way Forward

With advanced technological interventions, strengthening cold chain infrastructure, and popularizing value-added products as pivots, the National Horticulture Mission shall extend into new fields. Development of market linkages, promotion of exports, and development of climate-resilient farming will ensure sustainable development. Training and financial backing to farmers will augment their productivity and income further, thus increasing the competitiveness of Indian horticulture on the world stage.

Conclusion

Improvement in production, better market linkages, and increased post-harvest infrastructure support given by the National Horticulture Mission have resulted in the strengthening of horticulture in India. The transformation would further lead to better farmers’ livelihoods, nutritional security, and export potential. In essence, the Mission provides a central role in allowing agriculture in India to diversify into a sustainable and growth-oriented sector.

Further Reading: Horticulture: Types, Importance & More