Current Trends and Emerging Challenges in Horticulture

Horticulture is a boon of nature which is refined by human skill as a science to obtain more and more benefits. It involves rigorous cropping expertise, including the improvement, production, distribution and use of vegetables, fruits, woody landscape and greenhouse plants. Horticulture is now one of the fastest growing industry with striking professional opportunities. An increasing proportion of the world’s population is living in metropolitan environments where their understanding of farming, and therefore of food production, is becoming progressively more poor. While in 1950 approximately 71% of the world’s population lived in rural locations, this had declined to 50% in 2011 and is anticipated to be as low as 30% globally by 2050 [1]. Ironically however, these same urban-based consumers have become increasing verbal about various issues such as use of pesticides, labour conditions for farm workers, carbon taxes, buy-local campaigns, and the sustainability of production methods. These are often driven as “matters of ethics” and are in isolation from the reality of current production methods or of the opportunity to realistically meet these consumer demands. To meet the steadily rising requirements of low-cost, year-round supply of premium quality fruit and vegetables especially in developing countries, production of fresh vegetables for export has grown rapidly in a number of countries around the world over the last decade. This trade brings producers and exporters of world together with importers and retailers. Usually urbanization is also impacting considerably on the availability of labour for farming activities. The general unavailability of low-cost labour and the increasing cost of land have seen a turn down in horticultural production in many developed countries around the world. As a result, production has shifted to countries where land and labour permit cost- competitiveness, for instance Kenya. In many countries large scale production of agronomic crops through genetic manipulation is being extensively used. However, in same countries, production of horticultural crops by genetic manipulations is of great concern and a matter of debates regarding the safety and the wider justification of GMOs. The lack of consciousness about the role that conventional plant breeding plays in the production of new cultivars and the uncertainty that often prevails between conventional breeding and plants produced using gene transfer technologies is a matter of concern regarding horticulture practices. Current trends indicate that consumers are looking for increased variety, freshness, and healthy options in their eating choices. They are also seeking greater ease and a higher proportion of fresh produce in their diets. Those in metropolitan environments are more and more aware of and dependent on green spaces for their livelihoods and wellbeing. The future for horticulture and its foundation sciences within such an environment is, therefore, exhilarating, tricky, motivating and surely worthwhile.