Farmer's claim of cultivating 'hop-shoots' that sell for Rs 1 lakh per kg proves false

Only a few days ago, a young farmer from Bihar's Aurangabad district made headlines when he claimed to have cultivated a unique vegetable named 'hop shoots' that costs about Rs 1 lakh.

Touted as the costliest vegetable ever, the farmer identified as Amresh Singh claimed to have cultivated 'hop shoots' on a trial basis and more than 60% of its cultivation has already happened successfully.

For this, the farmer claimed to have invested Rs 2.5 lakh to grow hop shoots, a crop that is rarely seen in the Indian market.   

He also claimed that he did not use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides in its cultivation. 

But now there is a twist to the tale. The claims made by this farmer on social media reportedly emerged as false.

After a tweet by an IAS officer with two photos and quoting a news report, the story was widely shared on social media, with many people talking about the conical vegetable online.

When the media team reached Karamdih village in Nabinagar block at ground zero, the claims made by this farmer proved false.

In the investigation, it was revealed that in the village Karamdih, where on five kathas of land the crop was claimed to have been cultivated did not even exist.

Local people said they had never heard of such a crop being grown in the area, according to the report.

Even the family members of Amresh denied the cultivation of hop shoots in Karamdih and leave alone that, they said that they have never even seen hop shoots before.

After the news of 'hop shoots' cultivation started making rounds on social media, the Agricultural Department took cognizance and sent senior scientist of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dr Nityanand to Karamdih village to know the ground reality. 

He too found the claims as false and said that the temperature required for the cultivation of hop shoots does not match with the temperatures of any seasons in Aurangabad. 

However, after the reality came out Amresh went underground and is avoiding people and the media.