Bhairab Raj Kaini¹

Abstract

In spite of the long history of kitchen gardening, the beginning of modern horticulture development was the establishment of 13 horticultural farms at different regions of the country in yearly sixties.Progeny orchards were established at the government horticulture farms since then. Citrus and potatoes were recognized as nationally important commodities in 1972. Many exotic varieties of fruits and vegetables were introduced and screened during the period of 1975-85. During the Seventh Plan period, diversification and intensification programs were launched around high way corridors to commercialize horticulture. Long-term plans, such as MPHD and APP, were developed during early nineties. Since the later part of the 8^th plan, initiations were taken to develop market infrastructures for horticultural produce. The APP has identified citrus, apple, off season vegetables, and seeds of vegetables and flowers as high value horticultural commodities. All the programs vision by the APP for its first phase was reflected in the ninth plan. During the ninth plan period, the average annual growth of production was 3.12% in fruits, 5.079% in vegetables, 6.71% in potatoes, 6.48% in spices, 20.94% in tea and 30.31% in coffee. Commercialization of citrus, off season vegetables and floriculture is a considerable achievement of the ninth plan period. From horticultural viewpoint, Nepal's position in the list of SAARC countries is in the upper side. Deficits in horticultural trade are in decreasing trend. However, low productivity and high cost of production have made our horticultural produce less competitive in both domestic and international markets.