BHUBANESWAR: THE Odisha Cold Storage Association (OCSA) has submitted a Rs 25 crore proposal to the state government for the proposed cold store-centric potato mission under area expansion programme for over a period of five years starting 2023-24 rabi season.
Suggesting the Agriculture department to adopt the hub and spoke model with buy back guarantee to instill confidence among farmers for commercial production of the tuber, OCSA said it will act as implementing agency for the proposed model in which cold storages will function as the hub and they may be designated as farmer producer organisations for management of agriculture production clusters.
As the government has suggested the association to pilot the area expansion programme in the catchment of functional cold storages in one block each of Balasore, Cuttack and Jajpur district during this rabi season, the association has proposed to take up potato cultivation in 400 hectare covering six blocks in Cuttack district this year.
“We request the government to implement the scheme in a phased manner and expanding the area from 400 hectare to 18,000 hectare over a period of five years starting 2023-24 as base year,” OCSA president Janardan Sahoo told The New Indian Express.
The government has been proposed to take up the pilot project under two functional cold storages in Cuttack district covering six blocks namely Cuttack Sadar, Salepur, Nischintakoili, Raghunathpur, Biridi and Tirtol in the current rabi season. The area to be covered falls within 10 km radius of the two cold storages.
With 37 functional cold storages in the state, the association has proposed to expand the area to 2,000 hectare in 30 blocks in 2024-25 having 10 cold stores with an expected production of 30,000 tonne. In the third year (2025-26), area will be expanded to 6,000 hectare in 75 blocks where 20 cold storages will act as hub. In the next two years, the area will be expanded to 15,000 hectare and 18,000 hectare with expected potato production of 2.25 lakh tonne and 2.7 lakh tonnes respectively.
Estimating the total budget for the programme at Rs 25 crore, Sahoo said an amount of Rs 51.41 lakh will be required in the first year which will go up to Rs 9 crore in the fifth year. “We have suggested the government to determine the cost of production of potato every year by a joint committee comprising government officials, OCSA members and representative of farmer unions. Further, it has been requested to extend term credit facilities with low rate of interest (three per cent) to the cold storages depending upon their licensed capacities,” he said.