Bhubaneswar: Short winters, lack of suitable soil, no proper planning, unsuitable and poor quality of seeds, wrong sowing timing and lack of cold storage facilities are some of the reasons for shortfall in the annual production of potatoes, experts said.
Several attempts by the state govt, including a Rs 267 crore Potato Mission launched in 2015, have failed to overcome challenges in order to meet the annual domestic demand.On Saturday, chief minister Mohan Majhi said failure of the mission launched by the previous BJD govt had led to the potato supply crisis.

“The state has enough potential for increasing potato production. But some serious interventions and collective efforts are needed from all stakeholders, including farmers, scientists, technology, cold storage owners and traders,” said Ashok Mishra, head of All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) at Odisha University Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar.
Potato is cultivated over 35,000 hectares in Odisha, with annual production of about 4.28 lakh metric tonnes in 2023-24.
However, the state’s annual potato requirement is around 10.21 lakh tonnes, according to the National Sample Survey Organisation, necessitating dependence on neighbouring states, particularly West Bengal, to cover the shortfall. Potato productivity per hectare was 11, 970 kg per hectare in last fiscal.
“Till 1985-90, potato production was good. There were enough cold storage facilities and farmers were making some profit. However,t after privatisation of the power sector, subsidy to cold storage units has been stopped leading to the closure of most of them. It has affected potato farmers badly,” said Nanda Kishore Swain, a farmer of Jajpur district.
Agricultural scientists said the ideal time for sowing potato seeds is the first fortnight of Nov when the temperatures are suitable for germination and initial growth. But farmers are sowing seeds in the first fortnight of Dec after harvesting paddy. By then the temperatures are not conducive for germination leading to slow growth and low yield, they said.
“Govt should place order for seeds from the ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla early so that farmers can get high-quality seeds on time. Besides, farmers should identify suitable land for potato farming, conduct soil testing and sow suitable variety of seeds to increase productivity,” said Mishra.
He added that by following these processes and increasing acreage to 50,000 hectares, Odisha may meet its requirements in next few years. S S Sahu, assistant director of horticulture department, said, “Govt has been taking several steps to address the challenges and increase subsidies for farmers, provide quality seeds and also promote potato cultivation in kharif season. Last year several districts had a bumper harvest of potatoes.”