India: Govt. fails to keep potato mission promise
Potato growers of Western Odisha have been left in the lurch with the State Government failing to keep its promise to procure their produce through its agencies.
The Odisha Government launched Potato Mission from this financial year after West Bengal Government stopped inter-State trade of tuber. The ban imposed by the neighbouring State led to scarcity of potatoes and escalation of prices in Odisha.
Under the Mission, State Government had planned to maintain buffer stock to deal with short-term scarcity and set a target to bring 60,000 hectares of land under potato cultivation by 2017-18.
The Government had also committed to provide capital subsidy for new cold storage as per Agricultural Policy of 2013.But, all the promises fell flat as the agencies are yet to procure the stock leading to apprehension among the farmers that they would have to incur huge loss as their produce, mostly stocked in the open, rots in absence of cold storage facility.Protesting non-procurement of potato, the growers of Bargarh district dumped a truck-load of potato outside the chamber of the Collector in March.
About 632 farmers of four blocks of the district had cultivated potato on 550 acres of land on the direction of the administration which had set a production target of 4,000 tonne.Markfed, which was entrusted to procure potatoes, vanished from the scene after procuring a minuscule part of the target.With no cold storage or platform to sell their produce, the farmers resorted to distress sale to avoid loss. The tuber was sold for Rs two to Rs four a kg depending on the size of the tuber.
Fuente: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/140690/India-Govt.-fails-to-keep-potato-mission-promise
