Patna, April 4: The viral news that the cultivation of hop-shoots, the world's costliest vegetable, is being done in Bihar’s Aurangabad district, is fake news! The viral news that sent people in a frenzy and created a heavy buzz on social media is reported to be fake news as there is no hop-shoot cultivation in any district across Bihar. The story of the farmer named Amresh Singh won praises on social media after an IAS officer shared two photos of him along with a news report about the cultivation of the conical vegetable, which costs a whopping Rs 1 lakh for a kilogram.

"One kilogram of this 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," IAS officer Supriya Sahu had tweeted on March 31. The tweet went viral and received over 24,000 "likes" and was retweeted over 5,301 times by Twitterati.

Here's the tweet that went viral on social media:

Several reports claimed that the 38-year-old farmer from Karamnidh Village in the Aurangabad district of Bihar has taken a big risk and is now and is the first person in India to take such a step. According to a report by NDTV, it was found that the farmer Amresh Singh has grown black rice and wheat in the past but not hop shoots. After a team visited Singh's village in Bihar, it was revealed that no such crop was being grown there. Meanwhile, locals said they had never heard of such a crop being grown in the area.

The NDTV report further informed that when Singh was contacted on phone, he reportedly said the crop was in the Nalanda district of Bihar. When the team reached Nalanda, he said the crop is in Aurangabad. Soon after, Saurabh Jorwal, District Magistrate of Aurangabad was questioned about the growth of the crop in Aurangabad district, to which the official responded that there is no hop shoots cultivation in Aurangabad district.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 04, 2021 09:32 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).