Yogi Adityanath announces measures for welfare of potato growers

The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday announced a slew of welfare measures for the potato growers of the state who were facing a lot of difficulties owing to a bumper crop this year.

Announcing the measures in the state assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that in case of transport of potatoes to more than 300 km within the state limits, the actual cost of transport would be provided as subsidy.

Subsidy will also be provided on transportation costs for ferrying potatoes to other states. This subsidy would be given at the rate of Rs 50 per quintal or 25 per cent of the actual transport cost, whichever was less, he said.

The Chief Minister also announced that potato growers would be given rebate on Mandi (market) fees and development cess, which would be 2.5 per cent of the marketing costs. This facility for potato growers will be available till the next crop hits the market, i.e. December 31, 2017.

On account of these facilities being given to potato growers, the state government will incur a financial burden of Rs 80 crore-Rs 100 crore, which will be borne by the Mandi Parishad.

The Chief Minister said that the state government was serious about the problems faced by the potato growers and it was in this perspective that for the first time, a support price had been announced for potato farmers.

Under the support price mechanism, the state government had set a target of one lakh metric tonnes purchase, but most farmers had already stored their crop in cold storage, he added.

Yogi Adityanath said that this year there was a bumper potato crop because of which potato growers were not able to get the desired price for their produce.

It was for this reason that the state government had taken these steps to help the farmers, he noted.

--IANS

md/nir/bg