The International Potato Centre (IPC) at lima in Peru has agreed to provide required expertise to the State Government to boost potato production in State which has been facing tuber shortage most often.
According to official sources, the IPC would provide technical support under the project “Sustainable Intensification of Potato in Rice based System in Odisha for Increasing Productivity and Profitability.” The proposed project would help encourage warm tolerant potato production in a short period.
IPC Chairman Barbara Wells on Wednesday attended a meeting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and agreed to provide the State Government all necessary assistance in order to encourage farmers to take up cultivation of potato under the new project. As part of the project, steps would be taken to produce quality potato seeds and supply seeds to farmers at subsidized rate of Rs 16 a kg and impart training and organised marketing linkage along with creation of adequate scientific storage infrastructure, the sources said.
At present, Odisha is producing 2.5 lakh MT of potato in around 15,000 hectares of land per annum against a demand of around 10 lakh MT.
Meanwhile, Odisha has earned the distinction of being the number one State in the country in producing sweet potato with the successful implementation of the GAIN project being undertaken with technical assistance of the IPC. At present, the State Government has decided to extend the intensive sweet potato cultivation areas to Ganjam, Sundergarh, Koraput and Dhenkanal. During the meeting, Agriculture Minister Pradip Maharathy, Development Commissioner AP Padhi, Agriculture and Cooperation Secretary Rajesh Verma and senior officials of the Agriculture, Cooperation and Horticulture departments were present.