Potato producer purchase centers will be opened in all the districts – Dinesh Pratap Singh
Lucknow: The state government has decided to purchase potatoes of fair average quality (FAQ) at the rate of Rs 650 per quintal under the Market Intervention Scheme so that potato farmers can get a fair price for their produce.
Giving the above information, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Horticulture, Agricultural Marketing, Agricultural Foreign Trade and Agricultural Export, Dinesh Pratap Singh said that in the first phase, Uttar Pradesh State Horticulture Cooperative Marketing will be started in Mainpuri, Etah, Kasganj, Farrukhabad, Kaushambi, Unnao and Bareilly districts. Union (Hofed) purchase centers are being opened.
Concrete action has been started to export potatoes from Hofed level and demand is also being received from the exporters. Potato producer purchase centers will be opened in all the districts under the market intervention scheme by UP State Agricultural Produce Market Council.
Horticulture Minister Dinesh Pratap Singh said that the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister are determined to provide fair price to the farmers for their produce and proper schemes have been implemented by using all necessary resources. In the first week of March, 2023, in view of the reduction in the wholesale market price of potatoes in various mandis of the state, the state government, in the interest of the farmers, to store the potatoes of the farmers easily in the cold storage, to market the potatoes outside the state, to bear the cost to the farmers.
Effective action was taken to provide price, to provide benefit to the farmers on storage and marketing of Government of India’s scheme, e-NAM system etc. in the mandi.
The Horticulture Minister said that it is being ensured that the farmers do not face any problem in potato storage by video conferencing with the officials of the Horticulture Department and the owners of cold storages on a daily basis from the government level. Apart from this, the duty of officers/employees of Horticulture Department has been imposed on each cold storage to facilitate the farmers in storing potatoes in cold storage.
The Horticulture Minister informed that export of potato outside the state and outside the country is also being encouraged. A special system of e-trade has been implemented for sale of potatoes through e-NAM in potato-dominated areas in the state, especially in Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Barabanki etc. He informed that the first consignment has been dispatched from Farrukhabad in order to export 15000 tonnes of potatoes from the state to Nepal through UP State Horticulture Cooperative Marketing Federation (HOFED). Export of 600 tonnes of potatoes from Agra district has been sent to Malaysia, Dubai and Qatar.
Horticulture Minister said that Uttar Pradesh has the first place in potato production in India. Potato has an important contribution in the state as a cash crop for the nutritional needs of the consumers, employment generation and economically. About 35 percent of the country’s total production of potatoes is produced in Uttar Pradesh. Due to the efforts of the Yogi government, the area and production of potatoes increased. About 242.93 lakh MT production is possible in the state this year in relation to the coverage of potato in about 6.94 lakh hectare area. Through the efforts and policies implemented by the government, the number and storage capacity of cold storages have increased. This year, 1971 cold storages are operated for potato storage, whose storage capacity is 162.62 lakh MT. So far only 88.14 lakh metric tonnes of potatoes have been stored and the capacity of 74.48 lakh metric tonnes (45.80 per cent) is left for storage.
