Vegetable availability in India 190 grams per person a day

New Delhi, Dec 15 (UNI) The per capita availability of vegetables in the country is 190 grams as against the requirement of 280 grams and the area covered under vegetable cultivation was about 6.76 million hectares during 2004-05.

Minister of State for Agriculture Kanti Lal Bhuria said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today, the government had been taking steps to increase vegetable production in the country to increase the yield by promoting high yielding hybrids of vegetables and use of better quality seeds of vegetables, upgradation of technical knowledge of high yieding varieties and adoption of innovative package of practices of vegetable crops among the farmers.

To another question, Mr Bhuria said the government had constituted a separate commodity board viz the Coconut Development Board as a statutory body with headquarters at Coachin under the administrative control of the Agiculture Ministry. The objective was to promote overall development of coconut farming and industry in the country by implementing various programmes.

Touching upon the subject of reduction of milk consumers in Mother Dairy booths in Delhi because of floods in Gujarat, he said there was no reduced supply in Delhi because of floods. The milk production in Rajasthan accounted for 8.98 per cent of the total milk production in the country. The per capita availability of milk in the state was 387 grams a day compared to 943 grams in Punjab and 628 in Haryana.

UNI MCN LS DS1405