Marginal hike in horticulture production

The data of the third advance estimate suggests that the production of vegetables and fruits will rise marginally by 0.6% to 313.85 million tones as compared to last year’s output of 311.71 million tonnes. Given the fact that the area under cultivation is largely constant (25.5 million hectares), this augmentation in horticultural production has been mainly attributed to productivity gains.

 “Overall increase is recorded in production of fruits, vegetables, spices, flowers and honey whereas downslide is observed in plantation, aromatics and medicinal crops as compared to last year,” said an agriculture department official. The data anticipates potato production to have risen by 3.4% to around 53.03 million tonnes, while tomato production has been pegged at around 19.39 million tonnes, dropping by 1.8%. The overall production of fruits is stated to be around 98.57 million tonnes as against 97.36 million tonnes last year, whereas the output of vegetables is likely to have improved by 0.81% to 185.88 million tonnes this year.