India: Odisha sets higher targets for production of potato, onion

The Odisha government has set a target to produce 5.28 lakh tonne potatoes and 4.50 lakh tonne onions during 2015-16.

“The state is going to be self-sufficient in the two commodities in the coming year,” said a senior official in the state agriculture department.

Odisha, which depends on West Bengal to meet its potato demands, is encouraging farmers with seeds and other inputs in a mission mode to make it a surplus state in potato by 2020.

The state is planning to cover at least 30,000 hectares under potato this year against 16,000 in 2014-15. Similarly, plans have been made to cultivate potato on 45,000 hectare land in 2016-17 and 60,000 hectare land in 2017-18. While agriculture department is planning to produce 5.28 lakh tonne this year on 30,000 hectare land, the production is expected to increase to 11.12 lakh tonne by 2017-18.