India: More potato acreage needed to boost output in Odisha

With an objective to end potato scarcity in the state of Odisha, agriculture experts have suggested road maps to the state government for attaining self-sufficiency in tuber production by 2017. In his suggestions to the state government, Dhruba Charan Pradhan, a former agriculture officer, has said about 38,000 hectares (ha) should be brought under potato cultivation in this rabi season to achieve production of 0.76 million tonne of potato. He has also suggested scaling up the potato cultivation area gradually to 50,000 ha in 2015-16 and 60,000 ha in 2016-17 to achieve a production of one million tonne and 1.2 million tonne, respectively in these years to overcome the crisis faced by the consumers in the state. More