Bhubaneswar, March 5: The annual agriculture fair Krishi Mahotsav was inaugurated today by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

Agriculture products, new farming technologies, tools, animal breeds and achievements of the different agencies have been showcased at the fair.

In his inaugural address, Naveen reiterated his government's commitment towards development of agriculture. He also felicitated nine farmers from different districts for their achievements.

With potato and onion crisis hogging the headlines almost every year, the high-yielding tuber crop samples displayed at the kiosk of the directorate of horticulture attracted the attention of the visitors.

The kiosk displayed four types of onions produced in west Odisha and 17 varieties of potatoes at the annual state level agriculture fair.

Interestingly, while the state is producing nearly one lakh matric tonne of potatoes in a year, while its annual requirement is 10 LMT.

In case of onion, the production of 4.32 LMT is more than the requirement of nearly 3 LMT in a year.

'Onion bulbs produced in Odisha are better than those coming from Nasik, but as there is no proper stocking mechanism major part of the production is going outside the state via Chhattisgarh. Odisha is thus compelled to import the crop from other states,' said a senior horticulture official.

Gaura Patra, an elderly farmer from Sanakhemundi in Ganjam district, who visited the fair today said: 'The farmers information advisory committee in each district should give more say to farmers to become effective.'

Among the animals and bird stocks on display, goat species from Bengal, several exotic bird and animal species from farmers across the state also attracted attention of visitors.

Bijay Kumar Jena, a breeder from Pithapur in Cuttack with an enviable collection of nearly 1,000 species of animals and birds including colourful love birds, said: 'Young farmers can earn a lot of money by breeding these species as they are not ruled by the wildlife conservation act.'