BHUBANESWAR: Eight years after the failure of the Potato Mission, the State government has decided to promote area expansion of five vegetable crops to make the State self-sufficient. The Directorate of Horticulture has decided to promote the cultivation of potatoes, onion, tomato, cabbage and cauliflower over an area of 15,000 hectares in the ensuing rabi season with a cold storage-centric cluster approach.
“The run-of-the-mill approach adopted may not help make the State self-sufficient. Area expansion of the crops of these vegetables has to be explored beyond its conventional cultivation period and suitable sites with favourable ambient conditions promoting these vegetables and spices accompanied with adaptable variety may address the concern to a substantial extent,” said a letter from the Horticulture Director to all deputy directors and assistant directors of the department.
The directorate has set a 5,000-hectare target each for potato and onion cultivation while a similar area has to be identified in the district for tomato, cabbage and cauliflower farming. The financial support from the government will be Rs 29 crore each for potato and onion cultivation while the assistance for tomato, cabbage and cauliflower farming is Rs 10 crore.
Ironically, the area under potato cultivation prior to the launch of the State Potato Mission in 2015-16 was around 15,000 hectares. The government had planned to increase the area to 60,000 hectares over three years period by 2017-18 to achieve production of 11.25 lakh tonnes of potatoes.
While giving district-wise targets for the cultivation of vegetables, emphasis has been given to cluster formation in the catchment area of functional cold storages in confirmatory with the target set for the district. A similar cluster approach has to be adopted for districts without functional cold storages and the target set against the districts is non-negotiable, the letter said.
The district officials have been directed to take immediate action through the mobilization of field staff for the selection of beneficiaries and areas for vegetable cropping against the set target for the district. This exercise has to be completed before October 15, 2022.
The farmer producer organisation (FPOs), farmer interest groups (FIGs) and women self-help groups (WSHGs) need to be mobilized during preparatory activities regarding the selection of beneficiaries in a cluster approach to ensure better aggregation and marketing prospects following harvests.