THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The production statistics available with the department of agriculture development and farmers’ welfare — presented in the assembly on Thursday — says that 78.5% of the total vegetables required for daily consumption in Kerala are now produced locally while 21.5% is sourced from neighbouring states.
The data, relating to the past five years, reveals a jump of more than 100% in domestic vegetable production and the acreage under cultivation. While the state requires around 5,479 tonnes of vegetables per day, domestic production accounts for 4,301.4 tonnes, the agriculture department statistics say.
However, experts are not fully convinced about the state’s expanding self-sufficiency in vegetable production as urban markets continue to be ruled by vegetables from neighbouring states.
Pradeepkumar T, head of the vegetable science department in the Kerala Agriculture University, said: “The data may be true in terms of acreage under cultivation, production and consumption. But based on that data, we cannot conclude that Kerala has almost reached self-sufficiency in vegetable production.”
While there has been a significant rise in the production of vegetables like snake gourd, bitter gourd, cucumber, ash gourd, pumpkin, cowpea, ladies finger and spinach in the past couple of years, the state still has to source other staple vegetables from outside, he pointed out. “In fact, a glut of cucumber and other horticultural produce like snake gourd, had forced farmers to abandon their produce in some places. However, Kerala still has to depend on the neighbouring states to meet its daily requirement of onion, potato, tomato or winter vegetables like beans, carrot, cabbage and cauliflower, as their production is significantly low in the state,” he said.
The course ahead for the state should be to identify the areas or the crops that need to be improved, and explore ways to meet its requirement in other produce as well. “The state should also find markets outside for the crops which have an excess harvest. The Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralam exported a shipload of quality produce to West Asia and London during Onam as there is a high demand for ethnic vegetables in overseas markets,” Pradeepkumar said.
While refusing comment on the latest agriculture production statistics, P Indira Devi — former director of research at KAU — said there has been a new momentum in farming in Kerala in recent years, which is yielding results not only with vegetables but with fruits too.
Back to the farms
5,479 tonnes daily vegetable consumption
4,301.4 tonnes daily vegetable production
78.5% of total consumption produced locally
21.5% of vegetables sourced from neighbouring states
Jump of over 100% in domestic production in 5 years