The Odisha government is hoping to produce 528,000 tonnes of potatoes and 450,000 tonnes of onions during 2015-2016. Odisha usually depends on West Bengal for its potato demands. However Odisha is encouraging its farmers to make it a potato surplus state by 2020. The state is planning to cover at least 30,000 hectares with potatoes this year, compared to 16,000 in 2014-2015. Plans have also been made to cultivate potato on 45,000 hectares of land in 2016-2017 and 60,000 in 2017-2018. As a result, production is expected to increase to 1,112,000 tonnes by 2017-2018.
