Vegetables and Root Crops Production in 2022 
 In 2022, vegetables and root crops (VRC) production recorded a total of 159,551.74 metric tons. It increased by 446.14 metric tons or about 0.3 percent compared to the previous year’s output of 159,105.60 metric tons.

Major Vegetables and Root Crops 
   Of the total VRC production, the province produced a total of 83,393.87 metric tons of major crops in 2022. It increased by 0.3 percent from previous year’s level of 83,105.36 metric tons.

   Cassava has the biggest share in the total production of VRC under major classification with 37.2 percent. It was followed by camote, eggplant and tomato with 31.0 percent, 24.0 percent, and 7.0 percent, respectively. Furthermore, mongo, peanut and cabbage comprised the remaining share. 
   Cassava production in 2022 totaled 31,051.62 metric tons, lower by 1.1 percent compared to the previous year’s level of 31,381.94 metric tons. 
   Production of camote during the year was 25,863.34 metric tons, 1.1 percent decline from the 2021 level of 26,154.35 metric tons. 
   In contrast, eggplant production was 3.6 percent higher at 20,040.79 metric tons compared to last year’s level of 19,340.20 metric tons. 
   Tomato production during the year was registered at 5,841.29 metric tons, which was 1.2 percent higher than that of the previous year’s output of 5,770.77 metric tons. 
   The remaining 0.7 percent was composed of other major VRC comprising peanut, cabbage and mongo.

Priority Vegetables and Root Crops 
   In 2022, the province produced a total of 56,314.94 metric tons of priority VRC. It showed an increment of 0.5 percent compared to prior year’s output of 56,032.37 metric tons.

   Squash fruits had the biggest contribution of 37.3 percent to the total production of priority VRC. It was followed by ampalaya fruits and gourds with 20.1 percent and 12.0 percent share, respectively. Moreover, pechay shared 7.6 percent while kangkong accounted for 5.7 percent. 
   The remaining 17.2 percent was the combined contribution of gabi, stringbeans, ginger, pepper, radish, habitchuelas, banana blossom, okra, and carrots to the total production.

Minor Vegetables and Root Crops 
   A total of 18,831.20 metric tons of minor VRC production was registered in the province in 2022. It decreased by 0.7 percent from previous output of 18,960.96 metric tons.

   Chayote fruit contributed the biggest share of 34.4 percent to the total minor VRC production. It was followed by green papaya, camote tops and patola with 23.3 percent, 20.4 percent and 5.1 percent share, respectively. 

   The rest of the VRC contributed less than 5.0 percent each. 
Area Planted/Harvested for Vegetables and Root Crops in 2022 
   In 2022, the area planted/harvested for VRC was recorded at 19,618.94 hectares. It increased by 97.89 hectares (0.5%) from last year’s figure of 19,521.05 hectares. 
   Major crops recorded the highest increment in terms of area planted/harvested in 2022. It went up by 96.57 hectares from 10,884.18 hectares in 2021 to 10,980.75 hectares in 2022.  
   In contrast, priority and minor VRC recorded a decrement of 19.25 and 1.50 hectares in area harvested, repectively.