Oman produced more than 1.77 million tonnes of agricultural commodities in 2015

Muscat: More than 1.77 million tonnes of agricultural commodities were produced in 2015, which comprised 399,200 tonnes of vegetables, 412,600 tonnes of fruits, 31,000 tonnes of field crops and 929,900 tonnes of fodder crops, according to statistics issued by the National Centre for Statistics & Information (NCSI).
The quantity of production showed a healthy increase, compared with 1.51 million tonnes in 2014.
The total area of agriculture too went up, reaching 197,264 feddan (1 feddan = 1.038 acres), marking a significant increase from 163,959 feddan of land used for agriculture in 2014.
Vegetables were cultivated on 38,925 feddan, while fruits were grown on 73,444 feddan. Field and fodder crops were cultivated on lands with respective areas of 9,310 and 75,585 feddan.
The Sultanate achieved a higher production of fruits in 2015 at 412,604 tonnes, compared with 2014, while fruit production stood at 404,400 tonnes. Production of dates increased from 317,404 tonnes in 2014 to 325,314 tonnes in 2015, while coconut production declined to 6,643 tonnes from 6,732 tonnes, as also lemon, with production declining to 6,199 tonnes from 6,225 tonnes over the period.
Banana cultivation too suffered a dip in production at 16,578 tonnes, as against 18,194 tonnes in 2014. In contrast, mango production increased to 15,673 tonnes in 2015 from 14,257 tonnes in the past year, whereas the increase was marginal in the case of papaya, with production touching 5,772 tonnes as against 5,740 tonnes in 2014. Other fruits logged a rise in production reaching 36,425 tonnes from 35,847 tonnes in 2014.
Vegetable production went up to 399,172 tonnes, from 334,581 tonnes in 2014. Among vegetables, tomato ranked first in terms of production quantity at 116,408 tonnes, marking a huge leap compared with 74,709 tonnes of tomatoes produced in 2014. Onion declined in production, coming down to 5,827 tonnes from 10,680 ton harvested in 2014.
Production of field crops increased to 30,958 tonnes in 2015, as against 22,230 tonnes in the past year.