KOLKATA — The West Bengal government is in talks with authorities concerned regarding potential transport or logistics subsidies to help potato growers sell their surplus produce outside the state, Dilip Ghosh, minister for panchayats & rural development and agricultural marketing said on Wednesday.
Speaking at an MCCI event on rural development in Kolkata, Ghosh emphasised that the state’s most cultivated crops — paddy, jute and potato — must secure the right prices.
Addressing potato cultivation specifically, Ghosh claimed that while the quality is good, farmers are struggling to find outside markets because the former government had previously stopped exports of potato to other states.
Highlighting related infrastructure challenges, the minister noted that the state currently lacks multipurpose cold storage facilities, relying only on small cold chains, and that kisan mandis (farmers’ markets) have remained non-functional so far.
(This report was drafted with the assistance of AI and verified by a human editor.)