PRODUCTION AND EXPORT OF MANGO IN INDIA - A PARADIGM TO THE DEVELOPING NATIONS

Mango, "The King of Fruits" is known for its taste, flavor, attractive color and nutritional value. India is the major producer of mango among the countries in the world. Though the area under mango is increasing, the productivity is declining in India over the years. A study was undertaken using the secondary data drawn from both State and Central Government sources in respect of area, production and productivity and export of mango. India found to be the major producer and exporter of mango to the developing and the developed world. Tamil Nadu in India found to be the leader in fruit production followed by Maharashtra. In respect of productivity of fruits, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are the front runners followed by Madhya Pradesh. When we compare the fruit production over the years, it is interesting to note that higher area under fruits have produced very meager increase in fruit production due to low productivity. Percentage reduction in fruit productivity in a decade of time is found to be 2.68 per cent and the mango productivity is 3.19 per cent. In respect of productivity of mango, 2012-13 had witnessed highest production of mango. Percentage increase in production of mango is accounted to be 36.22 per cent in a decade of time. To confirm the decrease in productivity, a case farm in Theni District of Tamil Nadu was personally assessed for its production and productivity of mango revealed that the case farm is able to generate 558 per cent higher productivity than the state average and 216 per cent higher productivity than the national average productivity. In this paper, efforts have also been taken to document the export status of mango to different countries, processing units in operation with Tamil Nadu and the Cold Storage facility available for keeping the farm grown produce especially the fruits and their capacity utilization are also addressed with respect to India and Tamil Nadu in particular.