Diversification of agriculture is considered as an important strategy for agricultural development in India and importance of horticulture crops as a means of diversification and creation of employment opportunities in rural areas is recognized. Besides, it also leads to agro-industries' development and value addition. In India, horticulture accounts for 8.5% of the gross cropped area and occupies second position in fruits production and first position in vegetables production. Although, the state of Assam has the potential for development of horticulture with its wide range of topographical and agro-climatic variations, the state is yet to harness the potentiality. In a flood prone state like Assam where productivity of major crops like rice is not stable, increase in production of horticultural crops can minimize the impact of crop failure and provide monetary security to the farmers. This paper analyzes the status, growth trend—in area, production and productivity—of major horticultural crops of Assam vis-a-vis India. It also examines whether the area or productivity is the more influential factor of production of horticultural crops in the state. The paper highlights the better prospects of some horticultural crops in Assam, as their position is advantageous in comparison to India. There is also a need to increase the production and productivity by using scientific method of cultivation to have a sustainable growth in the long run.

The diversification of agriculture is recognized as an important strategy to overcome the emerging challenges in agriculture. Diversification of agriculture or mixed farming is a logical intermediate step in the transition from subsistence to specialized modern commercial farming (Todaro and Smith, 2004) in developing countries. The government has already identified horticulture crops as a means of diversification for making agriculture more profitable through efficient land use, optimum utilization of natural resources (soil, water and environment) and creating employment for rural masses especially for women folk (GOI, 2002-03). Most horticulture crops lead themselves to processing and value addition to products. The relative importance of horticulture crop is well established in human nutrition as source of foods. They are highly remunerative and are generally considered as high value crops and are suitable for earning foreign exchanges.

In India, horticulture sector, covered 17.2 million hectares of land in 2003-04, accounting for 8.5% of the gross cropped area of the country. The sector contributed 30% to GDP. India accounted for about 10% of the global production of fruits and was the second largest producer of fruits in the world. India ranked as the highest producer of vegetables in the world (GOI, 2004-05). However, with 8% of the total land area, the north eastern region produces only 3% of total fruit production, 1.5% of total vegetables, and 16% of spices of the country during 1995-96 (Madhav, 2000). But, there is an ample scope for growing a large variety of fruits, vegetables and other horticulture crops in the region since there exists wide range of topographical and agroclimatic variation.

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