21. Protected Horticulture in Peri-urban Areas: An Alternative for Meeting Future Challenges of Malnutrition and Livelihood Security

Rapid urbanisation in India faces several challenges and among them food and nutritional security appear to be the most important to feed the millions in these new urban hubs. As the majority of the population is vegetarian India needs fresh fruit and vegetables to meet their dietary needs. Under these circumstances we need quality horticultural produce along with higher production levels. On average an Indian household spends about 50 % of its expenditure on food items. Growing fruit and vegetables in and around cities increases the supply of fresh, nutritious produce and improves the urban poor’s economic access to food. Cultivation of vegetables offers distinct advantages in quality, productivity and a favourable market price to growers. Vegetable growers can substantially increase their income by protected cultivation of vegetables in the off-season as the vegetables produced during their normal season generally do not fetch good returns due to large supplies in the market. Growing urban middle class requires a regular supply of quality and high value vegetables to fulfil their demand. MPUAT in Udaipur, Rajasthan (India) has carried out research work on this aspect which is reported in this paper to give an idea about the cultivation, economy and marketing of some high value horticultural crops in different types of greenhouses under Udaipur conditions. Technology has been found very effective in producing horticultural crops out of season and economically viable crops that can be successfully utilized to combat some of the future challenges of urbanisation.