India's production of commercial horticulture crops touched a record 300 million tonnes (mt) in 2016-17, the agriculture ministry said in its third advance estimate released on Thursday.
The latest numbers are an upward revision from the 295mt as per the second advance estimate released in May, and 4.8% higher than the previous year’s production of 286mt.
According to the agriculture ministry, the area under different horticulture crops, which include fruits, vegetables and spices, rose from 24.5 million hectares in 2015-16 to over 25 million hectares in 2016-17.
The data further shows that while production of fruits rose 3.9% during this period to 93.7mt, that of vegetables increased 4.2% to 176mt. Production of different spices at 8.2mt saw a sharp increase of 17.4% year on year.
The record horticulture production in 2016-17 marks the fifth straight year that production of fruits and vegetables outstripped India’s foodgrain output.
