BALURGHAT: Cold storage facilities will be increased in North Bengal in order to store vegetables, especially potatoes, informed the Agricultural marketing Minister Biplab Mitra, who took part in an administrative meeting here on Friday at Vivekananda Conference Hall with the high-ranked administrative officials of both North and South Dinajpur districts.
"As per instruction of our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, we have taken up a decision to increase cold storage facilities in areas covering all the districts of North Bengal. We have a lack of cold storage facilities in North Bengal districts to keep vegetables, particularly potatoes. Potato production in North Bengal, for this year, is huge in comparison to the districts of South Bengal. Following lesser production, the rate of potato is high in South Bengal while at the same time, the potato price is lesser in North Bengal districts due to its high production,"Mitra said.
According to him, due to the lack of cold storage facilities in North Bengal the farmers have been facing trouble to store potatoes. "It is a massive problem. The potato farmers have been facing losses due to its heavy production in the entire North Bengal. In South Bengal, the potato production has been hampered due to untimely rain this year and that is why the price of potato is excessively high there. Now, we have set a target to establish more cold storages in North Bengal so that we can store potatoes and supply the same to South Bengal districts through proper transportation from here," Mitra said. He said the state government is determined to ensure the interest of common farmers so that they can get a proper price for their vegetables.