Agriculture and Farmer Empowerment Minister Pradeep Maharathy on Wednesday claimed in the State Assembly that the land coverage for cultivation of potato was increased by 59 per cent in 2015-16 compared to 2014-15 and refuted the allegation that the Potato Mission has completely failed in the State.
“Potato was cultivated in a total of 25,183 hectares of land in 2015-16 compared to 15,805 hectares in 2014-15. Similarly, a total of 2.78 lakh metric tonnes of potato was produced in 2015-16 compared to 2.68 lakh metric tonne in the preceding year. The potato production increased despite drought situation in 233 blocks,” said Maharathy in reply to a question of Congress MlA Tara Prasad Bahinipati and supplementary questions of a host of other members.
He said the State Government has targeted potato cultivation to be undertaken in 25,000 hectares of land and to produce three lakh metric tonne. “There is possibility of a 20 per cent increase in potato production in the current year compared to 2014-14,” the Minister said.
He further informed that the Government has decided to provide subsidy of `20,000 per hectare to farmers who would use quality seed under the Rashtriya Krushi Vikash Yojana.
Regarding cold storages, the Minister said eight new cold stores have been constructed and the storage capacity of all such stores has been increased by 36,400 tonne. Before Potato Mission, the State had 27 cold stores with 1,32,280 tonne capacity. Now, 24 new cold stores are being constructed and it is targeted that 12 would be built before the current year’s potato harvest period, and thus storage capacity would be increased by 49,000 tonne.
To a supplementary question, the Minister informed that a State-level market yard would be built on a five-acre land at Patrapada on the city outskirt after the Smart City work is over. Farmers from all parts of the State would be able to sale their produce at right time and right prices in the proposed market.
Among others, Dibya Sankar Mishra (BJD), Pradeep Purohit (BJP), Krushna Chandra Sagaria (Cong) and Prafulla Majhi (Cong) put supplementary questions.