NEW DELHI: India’s horticulture production in 2016-17 is estimated at a record 300 million tonnes, which is 4.8% higher than the previous year.The agriculture ministry released its third advance estimate for production of horticulture crops on Thursday, giving record estimates for fruits, vegetables, spices and plantation crops like arecanut, cashewnut, cocoa and coconut.Figures show that horticulture production will beat foodgrain yield fifth year in a row, continuing the rising trend since 2012-13. The increased horticultural production is, however, not an indicator of rise in income of cultivators.This was reflected again this year when farmers had to sell their produce, mainly onion, potato and tomato, at throwaway prices in many part of the country due to multiple reasons, including absence of cold chain.“Being perishable items, horticultural produce needs extra attention during storage and transportation. We don’t have enough storage facilities in many parts of the country, leaving the farmers to struggle to get remunerative prices”, said an official.He said the continuous increase in horticultural production also indicated growing demand of consumers for these items. “It led to increase in the area under horticulture crops”, he said.The area under horticulture crops increased from 24.5 million hectares in 2015-16 to 25.1 million hectares in 2016-17 crop year (July June), recording an increase of 2.6%. The ministry’s estimates show record production of fruits at 93.7 million tonnes (MT) during 2016-17, which is about 3.9% higher than the previous year.Similarly, production of vegetables is estimated to be a record 176MT, which is 4.2% higher than the previous year.Among vegetables, all three major crops — onion, potato and tomato — saw higher production in 2016-17 as compared to 2015-16. Potato production, however, hit a new high, increasing from 43.4MT in 2015-16 to 48.2MT in 2016-17, which is 11.1% higher than the previous year.Spices recorded the maximum jump. Its production is estimated to be around 8.2MT, which is 17.4% higher than the previous year.