Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday directed Markfed to immediately procure 300 tonnes of potatoes for school mid-day meals in order to help distressed growers in the State.
The Chief Minister has asked Marked — Asia’s largest marketing cooperative federation — to purchase the potatoes on ‘no profit, no loss’ basis to bail out potato growers from the crisis they were facing as a result of low prices of the commodity prevailing across the State.
The Agriculture Department has already issued an advisory to the departments of education and jails for optimum utilisation of potatoes in the mid-day meal scheme and for the consumption of jail inmates besides other Government institutions, which would also boost the sale of potatoes in the State.
“Capt Amarinder has also directed the State agencies such as Marked and Punjab Agro to formulate a comprehensive strategy to provide marketing support to potato growers in terms of remunerative prices and other facilities,” said the spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office.