West Bengal has topped the country in vegetable production in 2018-19, overtaking Uttar Pradesh, data recently released by the Union Ministry of Agriculture at a conference shows.
During this period, Bengal produced 29.55 million tonnes (mt) of vegetables, an increase of nearly 2 million tonnes from 2017-18 which was 27.70 mt. Bengal was earlier second to Uttar Pradesh. UP’s production has come down from 28.32 mt in 2017-18. West Bengal’s contribution stands at 15.9 per cent of entire country’s vegetable production during this time, while UP scored one per cent less at 14.9 per cent.
Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat are the other major vegetable producers of country contributing 9.6 per cent, 9 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively.
The total area under vegetable production in the country has gone up to 10.10 million hectares in 2018-19 from 6.74 million hectares in 2004-05, the data said. Total vegetable production has also increased during this time – from 101.25 mt in 2004-05 to 185.88 mt in 2018-19. The average productivity of the land under vegetable cultivation has been found to be 18.4 tonnes per hectare. The main vegetables grown were potato, tomato, onion, brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, peas and okra.
In fruit production, Andhra Pradesh topped the states with Maharashtra and UP following it. Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were the other main fruit-producing states. The data also said that fruits contributed 31.4 per cent of the total horticultural produce in the country. The total land area under fruit cultivation during 2018-19 was 6.65 million hectare.
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