Minimum support price for potato cultivators: Minister to hold meet today

The state Agriculture Marketing department is going to hold a high level meeting on Thursday to ensure that potato cultivators get their minimum support price. 

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has expressed her concern over potato cultivators, who were reportedly incurring losses due to increase in production of the staple food this year. 

The Chief Minister also announced that 28,000 metric tonne potatoes will be procured by the state government at a rate of Rs 4.60 per kg for anganwadis. 

In addition to this, state government will be giving 0.50 paise for exporting one kilo potato through roadways and Re 1, if transported in vessels to other countries. 

State Agriculture Marketing department minister Tapan Dasgupta will hold a meeting with other senior officials of his department meeting on Thursday in this regard. 

According to sources, potato cultivating areas will be divided into clusters. From each of the clusters, the produce will be sent to a particular wholesale market. 

This will not only make the task easier but also help the farmers to get the minimum support price. Dasgupta held a meeting with representatives of associations of potato cultivators and cold storage owners on Tuesday evening. 

Another meeting will be held next week. Potato cultivation in the state has gone up by around 14 lakh metric tonne this time compared to that of the previous season. 

While it was around 97 lakh metric tonne last year, the production is around 1.10 crore metric tonne now.