Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 27: Hit by potato scarcity, Orissa government Saturday decided to launch the state potato mission from next fiscal to make the state self-sufficient in production of the tuber in the next three years.
‘‘The government will continue to give capital subsidy for new cold storages as per the agricultural policy 2013. The government is considering to provide tariff subsidy for existing and new cold storages made operational by March 31, 2018. The government will also incentivise potato seed and crop production in the state in the next three years. We will also maintain a buffer stock to deal with short-term scarcity situations,’’ Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik informed newsmen here.
Patnaik said the Mission would be based on a task force report on the subject. He directed his officials to chart out a comprehensive implementation programme on potato. The state intends to expand potato cultivation in 60,000 hectares over three years to achieve the targeted production of 11.25lakh tonne by 2017-18.
Patnaik also said the state government would maintain a buffer stock of four lakh tonne to meet emergency needs.
Agriculture secretary Rajesh Verma said the total financial implication for the proposal would be `544.32crore in three years up to 2017-18.
It has been proposed that 50 per cent of the project cost would be funded from the state plan while the balance would be taken up by converging various central plans and central schemes, he said.
According to the Task Force report which was submitted Saturday, potato is grown in over 15,000 hectares with annual production of about 2.5lakh tonne, but the amount was found to be insufficient. The productivity of potato in Orissa is only 16.48 tonne per hectare against the national average of 22.8 tonne per hectare. The government has decided to create a buffer stock of 30,000tonne of potato in 2015.
Similarly, it will increase the potato seed production to 1.20lakh tonne. The government has also decided to build 122 cold storages by 2017-18. The state presently has 24 cold storages.
The government will extend crop insurance coverage to all blocks by spending `583.58crore in the next six years and allocate `300 crore for the crop insurance under state plan.
