Amid tussle with West Bengal, Odisha targets potato farming on over 15000 hectares of land

Amid the ongoing tussle with West Bengal over potato supply, Odisha Deputy Chief Minister KV Singh Deo on Wednesday said that the State government has set a target to carry out tuber farming on 15,023 hectares of agricultural land. 

Speaking in the Assembly, the Deputy CM said, “Steps were taken to increase potato production to 13.8 lakh metric tons in 2023-24. But this season, we have taken necessary measures to increase the production further.”

“Necessary steps have been taken to increase potato production in Cuttack, Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Koraput districts as they are the major tuber growing districts. Kharif potatoes are cultivated in districts like Koraput, Rayagada and Kandhamal,” Singh Deo added.

The Odisha government has spent Rs 64 crore for potato farming in Rabi season and setting up cold storages across the State to store the kitchen essential, he informed.

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Notably, Odisha is going through potato crisis as the West Bengal government has stopped its supply. 

Earlier, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Krushna Chandra Patra had made an explosive statement on potato crisis terming it as an artificial scarcity.

“The artificial scarcity of potatoes was made to blemish the government. The West Bengal Chief Minister initially refused to continue the supply. However, she agreed to restore the supply later. I don’t know why she is resorting to this kind of politics,” Patra had said.

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Earlier, the Minister had also said that Odisha would not make any requests to the West Bengal government to supply the tuber.