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Potato mission fails to take off as Odisha still heavily dependent on Bengal for the root vegetable

The Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo, replying to a query by BJD lawmaker Prafulla Samal admitted that the potato mission launched on 30 April 2015 has failed to achieve the desired result.

Potato mission fails to take off as Odisha still heavily dependent on Bengal for the root vegetable

(Representational Image; Source: iStock)

The State manages to produce barely one-fourth of potatoes to meet consumer demand, more than six years after the launch of the much-hyped State Potato Mission (SPM).

If the government’s admission in the State Assembly is anything to go by, 3.09 lakh metric tons of potatoes are produced in the State annually as against the consumers’ demand of a staggering 12.88 metric tons.

With the production and demand ratio being heavily imbalanced, the coastal State is heavily dependent upon neighbouring West Bengal, a potato surplus State, to meet the consumption requirement of the root vegetables.

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The Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo, replying to a query by BJD lawmaker Prafulla Samal admitted that the potato mission launched on 30 April 2015 has failed to achieve the desired result.

Despite best efforts, the state has failed to become a potato surplus region to meet the consumers’ demand. In the 2020-21 years, potato cultivation was taken up in 26,000 hectares with annual produce of 3.09 lakh metric tons.

The consumers’ demand was four-fold higher than the annual production.

Odisha produces 22.82% of potatoes required Odisha to meet consumers’ needs. The State depends upon West Bengal to meet with the shortfall, a senior official of the agriculture and farmers’ empowerment department said.

The failure of the potato mission has been largely due to the dysfunctional state of the cold stores in the State.

While 49 cold stores are currently in functional State, as many as 13 districts in the State do not have cold storage facilities resulting in the surplus vegetables, fruits, and other perishable agrarian produce including potatoes going into waste.

Potato production is showing no signs of growth to meet consumers’ demand after the launch of the mission in 2015.

While the produce was at 3.02 lakh metric tons in the 2015-16 years, it remained at 2.98 lakh metric tons in the 2017-18 fiscal year. In the 2018-19 year, 2.90 metric ton was produced while production grew marginally to 2.94 lakh metric ton in the 2019-20 year.

The potato production was estimated at 3.09 lakh metric tons in the 2020-21 financial year, informed the officials.

It’s pertinent to note here that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its audit report in the 2019 year had pulled up the State government for failing to utilize the financial resources that were at its disposal for the potato mission.

“The objective of achieving self-sufficiency in the production of potatoes could not be achieved as the government could succeed in utilizing a meager 25% allocated budgetary provisions in this regard”, the CAG report had indicted the government.

In order to make the State self-sufficient in potatoes by the year 2017-18, the Government launched the State Potato Mission during 2015-16 for production, storage, and distribution of potatoes in the State.

During the year 2015-16 to 2017-18, RS 26.65 crore (20.5 percent) was utilized against a budget provision of Rs 130 crore.

Similarly, against the physical target of establishing 55 cold storages, only 21 (41.81 percent) cold storages had been established as of March 2018, the report had pointed out.

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