New Delhi, Jan 18 (IANS): The estimation of total horticulture production for the year 2022-23 is 355.25 million tonnes, which is about 8.07 million tonnes or 2.32 per cent higher than the final production figure for 2021-22, according to the third advance estimate released by the Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday.

On the basis of information received from states/UTs and other government source agencies, production of fruits, vegetables, plantation crops, spices, flowers, and honey is estimated to increase as per the third advance estimate for 2022-23.

Fruit production is estimated to increase 109.53 million tonnes in 2022-23 from 107.51 million tonnes in 2021-22.

Similarly, the production of vegetables is estimated to be 213.88 million tonnes in 2022-23 while production in 2021-22 was 209.14 million tonnes.

Production of plantation crops is estimated to increase 16.84 million tonnes in 2022-23 as compared to 15.76 million tonnes in 2021-22 i.e. an increase of about 6.80 per cent.

Potato production is expected to be 60.22 million tonnes while the production in 2021-22 was 56.18 million tonnes. Tomato production will be 20.37 million tonnes in 2022-23 as compared to 20.69 million tonnes in 2021-22.

Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Arjun Munda said: "This achievement of continuously increasing horticulture production in the country is due to the hard work of our farmer brothers and sisters, scientists and agriculture and farmer friendly policies of the Central government under the leadership of PM Modi."