Contribution of agriculture and allied sector is about 22 percent in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India. Importance of agriculture in India can be gauzed by the fact that 65-70 per cent of the population in India is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Growth in Indian economy always get affected by the monsoon as 60 percent of area sown in India is dependent on rainfall. If rainfall is normal, it results in good output of agriculture. In case of deficit rainfall, agriculture output is adversely affected that has its impact on growth of Indian economy.

According to the Third Advance Estimates on production of foodgrains

and commercial crops released on 5 May 2006, the estimated production (in 2005-06) is shown in the Table given in the right side.

Horticultural crops:

-10 per cent of gross cropped area is occupied by horticultural crops

- India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables.

- Production of fruits and vegetables account 160.75 million tonnes (49.4 m. t. of fruits & 93.0 m. t. of vegetables).

-India's share in world fruit and vegetable production is 10 and 13.28 per cent respectively.

- tropical and sub-tropical fruits grown in India include Mango, banana, citrus, pineapple, papaya, guava, cheeku, jackfruit, litchi and grape,

-Temperate fruits grown in India are apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, almond and walnut

-Among the arid fruits, India grows aonla, ber, pomegranate, annona, fig and phalsa

-India occupies top place in the world in the production of mango, banana, cheeku and acid lime

-India leads in productivity of grapes per unit land area.
- India is the largest producer of mango, banana, cheeku and acid lime.

- About 39 per cent of world’s mango and 23 per cent of world’s banana is produced in the
country.

- India is next only to China in area and production of vegetables and occupies
prime position in the production of cauliflower, second in onion and third in cabbage
in the world.

- Floriculture is estimated to cover an area of 1.14 lakh ha. with a production of 6,70,000 MT of loose flowers and 13009.3 million cut flowers.

- India  produces a wide variety of spices like black pepper, cardamom, ginger, garlic, turmeric, chilli and a large variety of tree and seed spices.
- The total production of spices was 4.3 million metric tonnes and the area covered
was 2.56 million hectares.

- India is  the largest producer and consumer of cashew nuts.  Total production of cashew is around 0.57 million tonnes 

- India’s produced about 101 Metric Tonnes vanilla in 2004-05.

- India is the third largest producer of coconut and leads 90 coconut-producing countries of the world.

-It occupies top position in arecanut production.

- About 2000 native plant species have curative properties and 1300 species are known for their aroma and flavour.

- The Indian systems of medicines, popularly known as Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha drugs are of great demand in the country.

Source: Most of the information provided in this article is based on information provided in - INDIA 2008, A REFERENCE ANNUAL; Compiled and edited by RESEARCH, REFERENCE AND TRAINING DIVISION, PUBLICATIONS DIVISION, MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA