Workers carry potatoes inside a cold storage at Aiginia in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 11: Cold storages in the state that are supposed to stock potato are being used for other purposes. Some have even been converted into offices by traders citing the lack of government support.

Traders allege that the government is not offering them incentives, including subsidised power supply, to keep the facilities running.

Two huge cold storage units at Ainginia are now storing carrots and cabbages and occasionally, even flowers, sweets and cakes because the facilities required to store potatoes are not available. Potato needs long-term storage that requires more power which, the traders were not being provided at subsidised rates.

A cold storage at Chandaka Industrial Estate near Patia has been turned into an office building.

“Power subsidy is available only for energy-efficient cold storages. But most of us do not have the resources to re-design the facilities we set up long back,” said a trader on the condition of anonymity.

Sudhakar Panda, secretary, All Odisha Byabasayi Mahasangh, said government has refused to consider their repeated demands for relaxation in electricity charges for cold storage units. “It (the government) needs to evolve a more rational policy,” he said. He claimed that in the neighbouring Bengal, cold storage units were getting power at a low rate meant for farmers.

Lack of storage space and market linkage has occasionally led to state’s own potato harvest being sold out to traders outside the state. Two years ago, the bumper harvest of potato in Khurda and Nayagarh was bought by traders from Bengal because local traders did not have enough storage capacity. Similarly, potato from Koraput is often carted away by traders from Andhra Pradesh.

“There is neither any serious effort to increase production nor the storage capacity. Had this been done, we would not be facing this scarcity today,” said Panda.

Director horticulture Sanjeeb Chadha said that according to the state agriculture policy 2013, for construction, expansion or modernisation of cold storage units, 60 per cent subsidy on the capital cost of the project was being provided in coastal areas and 75 per cent in case of scheduled areas. But the units must adopt energy-efficient technology.

“We have built an ultra-modern cold storage unit near Chandaka... Interested traders can visit the unit to know about the technology and plan modern cold storage units to avail subsidy,” he said.

The horticulture department is planning to add about 10 modern cold storage units across the state.