Important of Fruit Farming

   Geographically, Gujarat is a tropical as well as temperate zone, 1500 km west of the state. The long coastline as well as the upper part of the  northern part of the state has  dry weather and sandy areas while the south has humid climate and hilly areas and the rest of the areas have semi dry weather . in the western half of Kutch district of Gujarat state. the average annual rainfall is 30mm. and 200mm in south part of Valsad district. The amount of rainfall during the month of June to September.

For Supplementation of Nutritious Food

• Fruits and Vegetables should be eaten regularly to supplement the essential vitamins and minerals for a balanced diet
• From the point of view of nutrition, every person should eat at least 85 gram of fruit and 300 gram of vegetable daily . in comparison in our state we eat only 60 gram of fruit and 120 gram of vegetables per person.
• Diseases occur in many people because the deficient in vitamins and minerals. the prevention of which requires increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables .
• Increasing the prodution of fruits and vegetables increase the availability and we can become more self-sufficient this field.
• Fruits and vegetables should be used abundance to maintain the health of the people.
• consumption of fruits and vegetables provides our body with an abundance of parasites, salts and liquid.

To improve economical situation

• India is the one of the poor country in the world. the most people live in the villages. they are mainly associated with the farming business.  Cultivation of fruits, vegetables and floriculture can play an important role in improving the economic condition  of people..
• Production and returns from well-nurtured fruits, vegetables and flower plant are higher than those grown in soil based cereals.

Better use of fallow land

• Due to population growth, extensive industrialization and urbanization in the state,  the shortage of good land is increasing day by day.
• In these circumstances the available fallow  land of arid and semi-arid areas has been used in agriculture to supplement the food grains.
• Complex problem lands are at risk  for normal farming. Which can be use in fruit farming.
• Nutritious fruit trees like Jujube , Sugar-apple, fragrant manjack, Grewia asiatica , Wood Apple, Carissa carandas, Tamarind, Malabar plum can be easily grown in fallow land.
• Help in the maintain the balance of enviroment.  

Foreign exchange earner:

• Fruits and frits-based products through export usually offer 4 to 8 times more benefits than agriculture produce.
• We can earn by foreign good exchange by raising more fruit trees  and improving them.
• There are many bright opportunity  to manufacture and export various products from important  fruits like mango, pineapple, citrus fruit, banana, guava, papaya, falsa, amla, etc on a large scale.

To develop agro-based industries  

• Fruits are perishable because of their high moisture content.
• In our country, less  then  2% of the production of fruits is preserved.
• Preservation units include various ingredient such as mango juice, jam, pickles, sauces, gooseberry pulp, jam, jelly, banana pulp, papaya tutifuti, amla candy, juice etc.
• Cultivation of fruit crops provides raw material for many industries such as preservation, drying, wine, cooling process, packing silkworm rearing, bee keeping, starch, transportation etc.
• If only 10% of the frits produced in Gujarat are used for processing, the economic condition of the farmers be greatly improved.

For employment opportunities:

• Fruit farming provides employment throughout the year.

      Crop type                               Required human day                                                 - Cereal crops                             143                                                                                         - Fruits                                         860

• Grape, banana and pineapple  cultivation require 1000 to 2500 days per hector. thus the fruit cultivation provide more employment opportunities.
•  Self- employment opportunities can be created through fruit tree nurseries, fruit farming, fruit-vegetable preservation, flower and vegetable farming and vegetable cultivation, floriculture industry.
• Technical employees and laborers and likely to get better employment  opportunities.
• Farm advice centers, expert centers for fruits and their various products etc. can be set  up.

Opportunities for employment:    

(1) Banks

(2) Farm industries

(3) corporations

(4) Insurance companies              

(5) Agriculture Universities/Center  for Agriculture Science  

(6) Private as well as Cooperative Nurseries

(7) State Horticulture Department

(8) Westland Development

(9) Boards, cold storage, Municipalities

(10) Pollution control Board and village Development Schemes

(11) Fruits and Vegetable based small-large factories.

Benefit of the spirit of cooperation

In the state of Gujarat and especially in South Gujarat, farmers have come together to form co-operative societies, such as sapota and mango are managed by this societies.

This type  of arrangement exists for a  limited area of certain fruits like sapota and mango which need to be developed for other fruits in different parts of the state.