look news india
Lucknow, March 11 (HS). Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra held a meeting with the concerned officials on Monday and gave necessary guidelines regarding potato production, storage and market price.
In his address, the Chief Secretary said that providing maximum price to farmers for their produce is the top priority of the government. Farmers should not face any inconvenience in storing and selling potatoes. All the markets should be made functional before the potato season.
He said that the rates of potatoes and the capacity and availability of cold storage should be updated daily on the respective portals. Daily reports should be taken from the district level to the headquarters level also. He said that the old cold storage should be completely modernized.
It was told in the meeting that about 35 percent of the total potato production in the country is produced in Uttar Pradesh. Potato is cultivated by more than six lakh farmers in the state. Last year, 243 lakh metric tonnes of potatoes were produced in 6.94 lakh hectare area in the state. At present the average market price is Rs 1039 per quintal (dated March 07, 2024), which is about 63 percent more than last year.
In the current year, there has been an increase of 3 percent in the number and storage capacity of cold storages as compared to last year. A total of 2048 cold storages of 17092355.37 metric tons are available in the state, out of which 11964648.76 percent storage space is vacant. To streamline the potato storage system in the districts, daily monitoring and control room was established at the headquarters level.
Agricultural Production Commissioner Manoj Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary Horticulture B.L. Meena and other senior officials were present in the meeting.