Vol. 11, Special Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
Dr. Priya Awasthi and Dr. SC Singh and Dr. Shweta Soni

Abstract:
The Indian economy is largely based on agriculture around 55% of the population dependent for their livelihoods on agriculture and allied sectors. Indian farmers are affected impacts of climate change, water scarcity and land degradation and many more calamities. In addition, increasing fragmentation of holdings, extreme weather events, rising input costs and post-harvest losses pose an enormous challenge to sustaining agricultural growth. Unfortunately about 25-30% of horticulture produce, 10-25% of vegetables and 30-40% of flowers gets wasted due to lack of postharvest management which resulted in huge loss of crores of rupees. Fruit and vegetable processing industry has taken a new direction and is growing gradually with strong growth rate annually. Infrastructure development for processing may take this industry to the new heights in the years to come with the help of sufficient exports and investments. Fruit and vegetable processing is done widely in the food and beverage industry. Fruits and vegetables are processed into a variety of products such as juices and concentrates, pulp, canned and dehydrated products, jams and jellies, pickles and chutneys etc.