West Bengal emerges at the top in vegetable production

West Bengal has emerged as the top state in the country in vegetable production in 2018-19, according to horticulture production data released by the Central government recently. West Bengal witnessed the production of 29.55 million tonnes (MT) of vegetables during 2018-19 which was the maximum in the country in that period, said the state-wise horticulture production data.

Uttar Pradesh was in second place with 27.71 million tonnes of vegetable production in the same period, it said. In 2017-18, West Bengal was in second place with 27.70 MT of vegetable production while UP held the top position with a production of 28.32 MT.

As per the data, for the 2018-19 period, West Bengal has accounted for 15.9 percent of the country's total vegetable production. It said UP produced 14.9 percent of the country's vegetable production, while Madhya Pradesh recorded 9.6 percent followed by Bihar 9 percent and Gujarat 6.8 percent.

It's a great achievement and the credit goes to our farmers, Agriculture Advisor to the Chief Minister, Pradip Kumar Majumder said. He said, "Under the guidance of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee we are trying to help the farmers in enhancing their income which eventually increased the production." Convincing the farmers to shift to cultivating horticultural crops rather than the traditional ones they had been doing also helped to increase vegetable production, Majumdar said.