The horticulture sector of India, in 2005-06, contributed around 28 per cent of GDP in agriculture and the production of horticultural crops registered an increase of 8.9 per cent. Growth in production decelerated to 2.8 per cent in 2006-07, mainly because of the decline in the production of onions and a stagnation in the production of spices. Vegetables, fruits, plantation crops and spices contributed to 59.8 per cent, 30.9 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 2.1 per cent of total horticulture production, respectively, in 2006-07.

All India Area and production of horticulture crops (Area-'000 hectare, Production-'000 tonnes)
Crop	2004-05		2005-06 (Final.)		2006-07 (Provisional)
	Area	Production	Area	Production	Area	Production
Fruits	5049	50867	5339	55397	5506	57727
Vegetables
Potato	1524	28788	1520	28697	1572	29647
Onion	614	7761	694	9228	656	8509
Total	6744	101246	7131	110106	7211	111770
Flowers Loose	118	659	146	686	154	886
Plantation Crops	3147	9835	3283	11263	3221	12083
Spices	2532	4068	2422	3923	2422	3923
Total Horticulture Crops	17827	167005	18713	181814	18980	186872

(Source: Horticulture Division, Department of Agriculture & Cooperation)

India is the largest producer of mango, banana, sapota and acid lime. About 39.5 per cent of the world’s mangos and 11 per cent of world’s bananas are produced in India. In grapes, India has the highest productivity per unit area in the world. India is next only to China in area and production of vegetables and occupies prime position in the production of cauliflower, second in onions and third in cabbage in the world.

India has also made noticeable advancement in the production of flowers. During 2006-07, the country produced 669000 of metric tonnes of loose and 27.23 million cut flowers from an area of 1.40 lakh hectares. Further, India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices and spice products. The total estimated production of spices during 2005-06 was 4.86 million metric tonnes and the area covered was 3.20 million hectares. India is also largest producer and consumer of cashewnuts.

For the holistic development of the horticulture sector, the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation has launched the National Horticulture Mission (NHM), which aims at doubling horticultural production by 2012. Under the NHM, action plans for 18 States, 2 Union Territories and 10 national level agencies have been approved during 2006-07. An amount of Rs. 560.29 crore has been released up to December 11, 2006. In 2005-06 and 2006-07, against a release of Rs. 1,575.30 crore, an expenditure of Rs. 1,018.40 crore was incurred by the States and National level agencies. An outlay of Rs. 1,150 crore was earmarked for the implementation of the scheme during 2007-08. Against this, an amount of Rs. 691 crore has been released till the end of January, 2008.

While, under the 'Technology Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture in North-Eastern States, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand', in the current fiscal year 2007-08, Rs. 323.40 crore has been earmarked, of which Rs. 227.40 crore is for the North-Eastern States and Rs. 96 crore for Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. An amount of Rs. 210.64 crore has been released till the end of January 2008. The achievements made under the Scheme are:-

• 97503 hectares of additional area have been brought under different horizontal crops.
• The area covered under fruits, vegetables and spice crops are 50667 ha, 16252 ha and 20262 ha, respectively.
• An area of 5858 ha has been covered under high value crops like medicinal and aromatic plants and flowers.
• 17353 women entrepreneurs were trained on different aspects of horticulture.
• Infrastucture facilities for production of quality planting material such as establishment of 420 nurseries, 3055 community water tanks, adoption of drip irrigation in 2121 ha were undertaken.

Besides, the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation has taken the initiative to promote modern 'Terminal Markets' for fruits, vegetables and other perishables in important urban centres of the country to provide the state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities for electronic auction, cold chain and logistics, and operation through conveniently located primary collection centres. These terminal markets are envisaged to operate on a “hub-and-spoke” format wherein the terminal market (the hub) would be linked to a number of collection centres (the spokes), conveniently located in key production centres to allow easy access to farmers for the marketing of their produce. They are to be built, owned and operated by a corporate/private/ cooperative entity. This entity could be a consortium of entrepreneurs from agri-business, cold chain, logistics, warehousing, agri infrastructure and related background. The Central/State Government lend support to the initiative by providing financial support to the project by way of equity participation up to a maximum of 49 per cent determined through a competitive bidding process. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Nagaland and the Union Territory of Chandigarh have identified land for setting up terminal markets.