Agartala: To make Tripura self-reliant in potato and potato seeds by 2030, the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department has taken a series of steps, including signing an agreement with the International Potato Centre of Peru.
This was informed by Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Ratan Lal Nath after he chaired a meeting with International Potato Centre Director General Simon Heck and Country Manager Niroj Sharma.
The minister informed that in Tripura there are 23,746 potato farmers, and potato is cultivated in 47,637 kani of land, which is around 7,622 hectares.
He said that earlier, per hectare potato cultivation was 19.16 MT.
“In our state, potato seeds used to come from cultivated potatoes that were stored, or from West Bengal, Punjab, or Gol Bazar of Agartala. There was no guarantee of quality, no source, and production was also very low. Later, in our state, True Potato Seeds (TPS) were introduced. This potato is expensive and required skilled workers, and without the research centre in Nagicherra, production was impossible and not significant,” he said.
The minister said that potato production was 1.46 lakh MT, while the requirement was 1.55 lakh MT to become self-reliant.
“Due to less production, we had to import potatoes. After our government came in 2022-23, we started a new process called Epical Rooted Cutting (ERC). From the Rashtriya Krishi Bima Yojana (RKBY) of the Centre, we took Rs 5 crore. We made an agreement with the International Potato Centre in Peru to help us with technology support, capacity building, research, assistance in certification so that we can export outside the state, and to establish a potato chips processing centre. From 2023 we have started. In the first year, we gave potato seeds and saplings to 104 farmers, in 2024 to 402 farmers, and now 4,000 farmers will receive this under Epical Rooted Cutting. According to Simon Heck, he has never seen such potato production anywhere. Tripura recorded the highest potato production earlier at 19.16 MT per hectare, and now per hectare production has reached 62.50 MT, which is a record,” said the agriculture minister.
The minister informed that the state will become self-reliant in potato seeds by FY 2028-29 and self-reliant in potatoes by 2029-30.
“Then we can also export potatoes, which is our plan,” the minister said.
