VISHAL SHARMA
AGRA. The Khandoli town of Agra stands out prominently on the country’s agricultural scene, producing about 8 percent of the country’s total production of potatoes. The high – grade potato varieties produced in this region had recently prompted the Uttar Pradesh government to brand this potato as “Taj Potato”, planning to export atleast 2000 tonnes of this potato to various countries under a single brand.
But the sudden temperature drop in Agra, almost touching the Zero degree mark through the past three days, has destroyed all export possibilities of the Khandoli potatoes this year, killing almost half of the winter potato crop worth almost Rs. 15 crores, which could also drastically raise the prices of potatoes this year.
The winter crop, spread in the potato belt of Agra, spread from Khandoli to Hathras town about 60 km away, has been almost completely destroyed in some pockets of the belt while at most places, the winter chill has killed atleast 45-50 percent of the crop.
Talking to Business Standard, the Uttar Pradesh minister for Food Processing Chowdhary Babulal said that the Khandoli potato was the primary ingredient of the Uttar Pradesh government’s “Taj potato” brand of which, 2000 metric tonnes were to be exported to Sri Lanka, Malayasia, Mauritius and the West Asia, but after a cold wave hitting the region, combined with the unavailability of electricity for irrigation in a large part of the region has resulted in the destruction of 60 percent of the crop while even the remaining crop, if it reached full maturity, would not have any export potential left.
According to the minister, the most conservative estimates pointed out that atleast six thousand potato farmers in the region had faced complete wipe-out of their crop and atleast 9000 metric tonnes of high-grade potato crop worth almost Rs. 15 crores had been destroyed.
He said that as a precautionary measure, around 135 cold storage facilities in the region, with a capacity to store about 12 thousand metric tonnes of potato have been given instructions to clean up their premises to receive an early load of premature and blighted potatoes in order to save the crop from further damage.
AGRA. The Khandoli town of Agra stands out prominently on the country’s agricultural scene, producing about 8 percent of the country’s total production of potatoes. The high – grade potato varieties produced in this region had recently prompted the Uttar Pradesh government to brand this potato as “Taj Potato”, planning to export atleast 2000 tonnes of this potato to various countries under a single brand.
But the sudden temperature drop in Agra, almost touching the Zero degree mark through the past three days, has destroyed all export possibilities of the Khandoli potatoes this year, killing almost half of the winter potato crop worth almost Rs. 15 crores, which could also drastically raise the prices of potatoes this year.
The winter crop, spread in the potato belt of Agra, spread from Khandoli to Hathras town about 60 km away, has been almost completely destroyed in some pockets of the belt while at most places, the winter chill has killed atleast 45-50 percent of the crop.
Talking to Business Standard, the Uttar Pradesh minister for Food Processing Chowdhary Babulal said that the Khandoli potato was the primary ingredient of the Uttar Pradesh government’s “Taj potato” brand of which, 2000 metric tonnes were to be exported to Sri Lanka, Malayasia, Mauritius and the West Asia, but after a cold wave hitting the region, combined with the unavailability of electricity for irrigation in a large part of the region has resulted in the destruction of 60 percent of the crop while even the remaining crop, if it reached full maturity, would not have any export potential left.
According to the minister, the most conservative estimates pointed out that atleast six thousand potato farmers in the region had faced complete wipe-out of their crop and atleast 9000 metric tonnes of high-grade potato crop worth almost Rs. 15 crores had been destroyed.
He said that as a precautionary measure, around 135 cold storage facilities in the region, with a capacity to store about 12 thousand metric tonnes of potato have been given instructions to clean up their premises to receive an early load of premature and blighted potatoes in order to save the crop from further damage.
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