New Delhi, March 29 : The Agricultural Ministry annual report 2017-18 has said that India is a leader in production of vegetables like peas and okra. The country also occupies the second position in production of brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower and onion and third in potato and tomato in the world.
“Vegetables are an important crop in horticulture sector, occupying an area of 10.1 million ha during 2017-18 (1st Estimate) with a total production of 180.7 million tonnes with average productivity of 17.8 tonnes/ha. In fact vegetables constitute about 59% of horticulture production,” the report said.
In the last four years, West Bengal topped the chart for the States with Highest Production Of Vegetables (Thousand Tonnes) from in 2013-14 to 2016-17. While for the same period Arunachal Pradesh stood at the bottom of the chart.
As per ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare’s Annual Report 2017-18 India’s total geographical area is 328.7 million hectares. Out of this, the reported net sown area is 140.1 million hectares and the gross cropped area is 198.4 million hectares with a cropping intensity of 142 percent (figures as per the land use statistics 2014-15).
The net area sown works out to be 43 percent of the country’s total geographical area while the net irrigated area is 68.4 million hectares.
