Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy on Wednesday said the State would be self-sufficient in potato production in three years by 2017-18 fiscal. The Minister was replying to a question of Ranendra Pratap Swain and additional questions put by other members in the State Assembly. He said a taskforce has been formed led by the Principal Secretary of his department to ensure that targeted quantities of potato and potato seed are produced every year till 2017-18-end.
“We have targeted to produce 5.28 lakh tonnes of potato from 30,000 hectares of land in 2015-16, 8.97 lakh tonnes from 45,000 hectares in 2016-17 and 11.12 lakh potato from 60,000 hectares of land in 2017-18,” the Minister said, informing that the States’ potato demand is 10 lakh tonnes per year.
Maharathy also stated that currently the potato seed production in the State doesn’t commensurate with the requirement. During 2014-15, OAIC had supplied 800 quintal of potato seed procuring from farmers of the State. The OAIC has taken potato seed production programme over 50 acres in Baleswar district and three acres in Puri district and is expected to produce 5,000 quintal of seed during the current Rabi season.
Besides, he said, the National Seed Corporation is producing potato seeds over 26 acres in Mayurbhanj and Bargarh districts through farmers. But no seed production programme has been undertaken by the OSSC ltd.
While most of the participating members expressed concern over non-availability of cold storage facility, the Minister said the Government has also decided to set up 112 multipurpose cold storages across the State. For this, the State Government would provide 70 per cent of establishment cost in the KBK areas and economically backward areas.