Lucknow, May 7 -- Addressing the 'Fruit Horizon 2026' conference organised at ICAR-Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (CISH) in Lucknow, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union minister for agriculture & farmers welfare and rural development, said that merely increasing production will no longer be enough. He stressed that India must now work seriously on quality, shelf life, processing, logistics and export standards to establish a strong identity in the global fruit market.

The Union minister underlined that agriculture can no longer remain confined to the farm alone. Strengthening the entire value chain from production to processing, marketing and exports is now the need of the hour, he said.

Interacting with farmers and stakeholder...