BHUBANESWAR: In a big push to the promotion of potato cultivation under the area expansion program, the state government has planned to provide a subsidy amounting to Rs 58,000 per hectare to farmers. The subsidy will take care of seed costs as well as plant care.
The Agriculture department has set a target to increase the area under rabi potato cultivation from 5,000 hectares last year to 11,000 hectares for districts not having functional coal storages. The target set for each district in non-negotiable. “The total cost of cultivation of potato per hectare is estimated at Rs 1.45 lakh. The maximum allowable subsidy is Rs 58,000 per hectare at the rate of 40 per cent of the total cost of cultivation,” said authoritative sources in the Agriculture Department.
The subsidy will be allowed in two phases. While a seed subsidy of Rs 43,875 per hectare will be released to the seed supplier, the plant care subsidy of Rs 14,125 will be released to the farmer through direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode only after after first earthing up (after 21 days of planting of seed potato). The first earthing-up is done when the plants are around 15-25 cm high.
“Farmers will pay only 25 per cent of seed cost while the rest 75 per cent of will be borne by the government in the shape of subsidy. The all-in-cost of certified potato seed is Rs 3,144 per quintal and farmers will have to pay Rs 786 per quintal at 25 per cent. The subsidy is allowed for a maximum of one hectare. The farmers will have to bear the cost of seed in full for cultivation of potato on more than one hectare,” the sources added.
The subsidy will be released out of allotted funds of the state plan under the scheme development of potato vegetables and spices. The Agriculture Department has procured 1.65 lakh quintals of certified potato seeds through the Odisha State Seeds Corporation and for the first time, the Horticulture Directorate successfully supplied certified potato seeds in the first week of November.
The Directorate had supplied a record 64,000 quintals of certified potato seeds in the kharif season of 2023 to Koraput, Rayagada, and Malkangiri districts which have reported a bumper production of the tuber. Distress sale of kharif potato has been reported from the three districts where farmers are facing problems in storing potatoes.