The news about “Amresh Singh” a farmer from Bihar cultivating the costliest crop named Hop-Shoot which could cost Rs. 1lakh/Kg has gone viral on social media around the world. On 31st March 2021 an IAS officer Supriya Sahu had tweeted saying “One Kilogram of vegetable costs about 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” the following tweet was liked by nearly 24000 people and was repeatedly tweeted around 5000times as per India.com news report.
According to the sources various news media had reported that, Amresh Singh a farmer from Aurangabad district was the only farmer who invested to cultivate Hop-Shoot in India. He had invested nearly 2.5 lakh for the successful growth of the costliest vegetable in his land without the use of any chemical fertilizers or pesticides. It was mentioned that around 60per percent of the cultivation was done.
Hop-Shoot is a vegetable usually used for making beverages such as beer, bittering and flavouring , apart from this due to its antibacterial effects its used for medical purposes for instance to cure diseases like Tuberculosis and Cancer. The crop is a perennial plant, also known as humulus lupulus which is a native of Europe and North America. In the International market the vegetable is sold for 85000/- per KG.
The trending news led the Agricultural Department of Bihar to visit the place where the crop was said to be grown. But the department was displeased when it found out that the cultivation of the expensive vegetable was fake news. The columns of Dainik Jagran reported that the information about hop shoot crop cultivation which is being circulated on social media is fake. After interacting with the local people of Karamnidh village in Aurangabad district of Bihar they found out that Amresh Singh was not a resident of Aurangabad and the villagers were not aware of cultivation of any such crop.
Jitendra Kumar, Assistant Director Horticulture had stated that Amresh Singh had misled them by saying that the crop was being cultivated in Nalanda District . The search team couldn’t trace out any farming activity to grow hop shoots in India. Hence, Jitendra Kumar Had mentioned that incase if the information about farming is surely fake then Amresh Singh will have to face the consequences as a case of fake farming will be registered against him.
