Govt pegs higher production of onion, tomato and potato for 2024-25 in 1st estimate

New Delhi: India's onion production is expected to rise by 19 per cent to 288.77 lakh tonne in the ongoing crop year ending June 2025, according to the agriculture ministry's latest estimate.

Production of onion stood at 242.67 lakh tonne in the previous year.

The crop year runs from July to June.

Releasing the first advance production estimate of horticultural crops for 2024-25, the ministry said tomato production is expected to be around 215.49 lakh tonnes as compared to about 213.23 lakh tonnes last year, which is higher by 1.06 per cent.

Potato production is expected to reach 595.72 lakh tonnes, which is 25.19 lakh tonnes more than last year. Total vegetable output is seen to increase to 2145.63 lakh tonnes in 2024-25 from 2072.08 lakh tonnes in the previous year.

Fruit production is expected to increase by 2.48 lakh tonnes to reach 1132.26 lakh tonnes in 2024-25, mainly due to increase in production of mango, grapes and bananas.

Production of plantation crops is estimated at 179.37 lakh tonnes, higher than 176.66 lakh tonnes in 2023-24. Production of spices is estimated to be 119.96 lakh tonnes. An increase has been observed in the production of garlic and turmeric.

Total horticulture production in the country is estimated to be about 362.09 million tonnes in the year 2024-25, about 73.42 lakh tonnes (2.07 per cent) more than the final estimate of 2023-24.

Total area sown to all horticultural crops remained slightly lower at 28.84 million hectares this year, as against 29.09 million hectares in the previous year.