Odisha to launch Potato Mission

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Dec 27: As Odisha has been facing potato crisis since long, the State Government on Saturday said that it will implement a Potato Mission from fiscal 2015-16 to make the State self-sufficient in this regard.Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who reviewed the ongoing crisis and discussed about production and storage of potato, told presspersons that the proposed Potato Mission will be implemented from 2015-16 to make the State self-sufficient in potato production and storage over a period of three years.Patnaik made the announcement after the report of a Task Force on potato was accepted at the review meeting that was attended by Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy, Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare Minister Sanjay Das Burma, Chief Secretary Gokul Pati and other senior officials.The meeting decided to increase area under potato cultivation in the State to 60,000 hectares by 2017-18 against the present production over 15,000 hectares.Accordingly, it was decided to increase potato production to 11.25 lakh tonne by 2017-18 from existing production of 2 lakh tonne at present.Interestingly, the review meeting was held and the ambitious announcements were made days after the West Bengal Government lifted its restrictions on export of tuber to different States, including Odisha ahead of the potato harvest season.