New Delhi: Amresh Singh, a farmer in Bihar is making a huge gamble by growing ‘hop shoots’ on his farming land. Amresh who hails from Bihar’s Aurangabad district has invested Rs 2.5 lakhs in his attempt to harvest this unique vegetable. ‘Hop shoots’ sell for around Rs 1 lakh per kg.
An IAS officer Supriya Sahu posted about the same on her Twitter account:
One kilogram of this vegetable costs about Rs 1 lakh ! World’s costliest vegetable,’hop-shoots’ is being cultivated by Amresh Singh an enterprising farmer from Bihar, the first one in India. Can be a game changer for Indian farmers ?https://t.co/7pKEYLn2Wa @PMOIndia #hopshoots pic.twitter.com/4FCvVCdG1m
— Supriya Sahu IAS (@supriyasahuias) March 31, 2021
Amresh had bought the sample of this vegetable from the Indian Vegetable Research Institute in Varanasi.
Amresh in an interview to The New Indian Express said, ” I am happy to say that more than 60 percent of its cultivation has happened successfully. I have planted the saplings of this vegetable two months ago after having brought it from the Indian Vegetable Research Institute at Varanasi. I hope it will be a grand success and turnaround agriculture in Bihar too.”
He further added, “Its flower is called hop-cones or strobile, which is used as a stability agent in the making of beer. The rest of the twigs are used for food and medicine purposes. In the farming sector, taking a risk with self-confidence ultimately helps the farmer to win. I have taken the risk for experimenting with the cultivation of hop-shoot in Bihar and hope, it will set a benchmark.”
