Commercial

ONE DECADE WITH HUMBLE INDIAN POTATOES

Dr.Satyen Yadav, President ,Horticulture Produce Management Institute, Noida, UP,India

http://www.hpmi.org.in

 

Background :

While thinking of promoting a specialized produce management organization, I had the following factors in mind that the produce selected should have it’s role on Indian Economy in future and there should not be the competition with existing players specially with large corporate. This is how, our humble Potato attracted our attention for adoption seeing it’s humble nature i.e. Having big inherent strength and still no complains for not being patronized. That is why, I always call HUMBLE POTATOES.

Dairy : 1999 to 2010

1999-
Due to some special reasons, I though of promoting a Society and I started understanding it’s procedures and protocols with a aim to promote Indian Potatoes on International level with a aim to ensure the appropriate prices to the farmers and value for the money of the consumers.
Now, the next step was to identify the team and team leader having interest in addressing to the problems of Humble Potatoes. So, I requested Dr. Kirti Singh, India’s most decorated Horticulture Scientist, who is like my guardian for nominating a person, who can be a torch bearer for us. So, he recommended the name of Dr. Jagpal Singh, who was working as Joint Director at Modipuram, Meerut, UP at Indian Potato Research Institute, a ICAR sponsored apex organization, responsible For various issues related to Potatoes with a Head Quarter at Kufri, Shimla. So, I met Dr. Jagpal Singh, who was already briefed about our plans, so he was very happy to confirm his association with us after his retirement, which was due in, 2000 as founder member of HPMI as a member of first Executive Committee.

2000-
Finally, we got HPMI registered as Society at Lucknow with global operational jurisdiction and started talking knowing about my humble friend Potato. Since, we were operating in Punjab for promoting retail of fruits & vegetables directly to the customers and we had developed the association with Punjab State Marketing Federation Ltd. a state Govt. public sector company with a mandate to support Punjab Farmers, so got an opportunity to be a part of discussion for handling the glut situation of Potatoes in Punjab, which was giving sleepless nights to all Govt. officials related to Agriculture including Hon’ble Chief Minister Mr. P.S.Badal, who was worried for his bi-election on two seats and farmers were very unhappy for not helping farmers to come out of the glut situation and stabilize the prices which were insignificant (Rs.0.20 per Kg) and farmers were not ready to lift the potatoes from cold stores because the prices of 50 kg potatoes were less than the 50 kg bags.

During the meeting, Hon’ble Chief Minister was discussing the situation of Potato Glut and suddenly, Mr. D.S. Bains, IAS, Managing Director, who had taken me to this meeting, asked me,if I have any solution. I said, yes and suggested them to procurement the potatoes from farmers at a support price of Rs 2.00 per Kg and send it to Orissa under a relief project, where Markfed had decided to contribute Rs. 2.00 Crores. This suggestion was well taken and appreciated and Hon’ble Chief Minister announced the procurement of Potatoes @ Rs 2.00 per Kg, so potatoes prices were up within two-three day to Rs 2.00 from Rs 0.20. Based on this news the Hon’ble Chief Minister Of Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Raj Nath Singh announced the procurement of Potatoes because he was also facing the similar problems and threats to his seats in bi-election. So, based on the press statement, the prices started rising in UP also.

By the time, Mr.D.S.Bains had developed reasonably good comfort level with me ,so he asked me about the next step and I suggested to explore the export possibilities for Potatoes to neighboring countries like Dubai and Sri Lanka, so Mr. D.S. Bains took a decision to take a delegation which included few farmers to give comfort level (due to bi-election, me and one Markfed officer) and we went to Dubai and Sri Lanka and bagged the orders of few containers of Potato Exports, which was executed within one week after return to India and media high-lighted this issue, which helped in getting the price rise to Rs 4.00 per Kg and this is what every one wanted.

2001-
Since, this activity was very well appreciated, so I suggested Mr. D.S. Bains to support HPMI in organizing a seminar on EXPORT OF POTATOES to sensitize the stack holders of Potato business. Punjab Markfed sponsored this idea and a one day seminar on “PUNJAB POTATOES 2001 – EXPORT OF POTATOES FROM PUNJAB” at Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana was organized by HPMI, which was the first medium scale event of HPMI which was attended by all the stack holder of Potato Value Chain including policy makers, farmers, cold storage owners, processors, traders and input manufacturing companies.

After this meeting and my experiment with price management during glut situation, I got little recognition as a Potato Scientist, though I never know about potatoes before meeting Dr. Jagpal Singh, except eating it as my favorites food. Based on my experience of handling potatoes for exports, I had an opportunity to meet another visionary person Mr. Anil Swarup, IAS, Chairman, APEDA (Agriculture & Processed Food Export Development Authority, Ministry Of Commerce, Govt.of India) for fifteen minutes and by the grace of GOD, I convinced him for pushing export Promotion of Potatoes.

It was November, 2001, when I got a message through Mr. A.S. Rawat, Deputy General Manager APEDA, who was handling the fresh fruits & vegetables division. Though, Mr. A.S. Rawat was not haapy with me because of the problems faced in reaching me and giving me the Chairman’s message to come to Delhi. So, immediately I reached Delhi and met Mr. Anil Swarup, who explained a concept of Agri Export Zone and asked me, if I can develop a project for setting up a Agri Export Zone For Potato Export in Punjab by tomorrow.Without giving a though to the seriousness and complexity of the project, I spontaneously said “Yes”. Mr. Anil Swarup was very happy and asked Mr. Rawat to provide me all support, if I need some. Mr. Rawat was not happy with me, so he reluctantly said yes. I took all the information and hard copies of information from Mr. Rawat and studied it till next day morning and wrote a concept paper and reached Mr. Anil Swarup at 11 a.m. (as per his target). Mr. Anil swarup was very happy and asked his one of the officer to type it on computer because I was not very good on computer and more over I did not have laptop at that time. Mr. U.K. Vats, Asstt. General Manager, a very good human being as humble as my Potatoes helped me developing a concept paper on the format to be presented before the empowered steering committee for the approval of Agri Export Zones in India after one day. Now, there was a pre-requisite to have a consent from the partner state Govt. for which I requested Mr. D.S. Bains, a visionary person, who immediately consulted Hon’ble Chief Minister and faxed a letter from the office of the Development Commissioner, Govt. of Punjab within few hours. So, now there was only one mile stone left i.e. steering committee for the approval of the projects, which was chaired by Secretary commerce. This committee was having the Heads of all line Departments and their experts. There were few other projects in the agenda list but AGRI EXPORT ZONE FOR POTATOES IN PUNJAB was the first agenda. The meeting started at 11 a.m. and after a introductory address, I was asked to present the project in two minutes. The moment got this instructed, my heart almost stopped beating for a second because presenting a development project of 830 crores in two minutes was beyond my imagination but I requested God to help me and I made it with in 1.5 minutes rather in two minutes. Secretary commerce said very Good, is there any question on this project. For a second, there was no response but suddenly Dr. H.P. Singh, the Horticulture Commissioner opened up by saying that “I have my doubts on Potato Exports because Indian Potatoes are not of very good quality and more over they contain about 80% water, so transporting water does not make sence”. Now, it was again a difficult situation before me. I had two options either to respect Dr. H.P. Singh by keeping mum at the cost of the project or answering the issue in the interest of project. So, I decided to reply by saying “with due respect to your Chair, I assume that you are aware about the status of Potatoes in India, which have 35 varieties which are at par with international varieties but they have never been exposed to International market and regarding transporting the water, so most of the fruits and vegetables are being transported across the globe including watermelon, so why you have reservation for potatoes and regarding the market, you should know the global trade of potatoes which has a large gap”. The moment, I said this, the Chairman reacted very badly addressing Dr. H.P. Singh saying “Dr. Singh, this is not the platform to educate yourself being Horticulture Commissioner. You should have the updates before coming for the meeting. He said to Chairman APEDA, Mr. Anil Swarup, please organize a coordination committee meeting in future before coming to the steering committee to avoid such non-productive discussions” and the project was approved and the next agenda was taken. But Dr. H.P. Singh made a issue against me and never spoke to me for couple of years, though we crossed roads many times.

2001
Now, there was another challenge for another Agri Export Zone Project in Uttar Pradesh is a largest Potato growing state, so the request came from UP Govt. for the similar project and the APEDA Chairman was from Uttar Pradesh cadre, so he asked me to do the same home work for UP state and I did it. This time, the road was little smooth because before steering committee, there was a coordination committee before the steering committee. So, again the same exercise was repeated and I had to appear before a coordination committee where I encountered another inhibitor Mr. Sudhir Kumar, the than MD, SFAC, Govt. of India but it was handled by the Chairman of the meeting Mr. Anil Swarup and finally we crossed this hurdle and reached steering committee and got the project cleared. After the approval from coordination committee, the APEDA Chairman suggested that we should test the model and take the response from different stack holders. Therefore, I was given a responsibility through my organization HPMI to organize a one day workshop on AEZ for Potatoes in UP to be organized at Agra, the major potato area of Uttar Pradesh. The date was fixed up for the event and 50% of required funding was agreed by APEDA as per their norms and to match the requirements, I approached NHB for remaining support. Though, their Lucknow office agrred but never approved the release of funds and consequently, HPMI had to bear the remaining expenses but the event was one of the great event with 99% attendance of the invitees, which included, Mr. A.P. Singh, the than Chief Secretary; The Chairman, APEDA; The MD, NSC; Head CPRI, Head IPC, and almost all the representatives of state and central Govt. development agencies, cold store owners, farmers, agri-input companies and potato processing companies. This one day program at Hotel Clarks at Agra, set the ball rolling and sensitize all the stack holders engaged in potato business or related activities and started dreaming a wonderful future ahead with humble potatoes.

—- After the project was dully approved by the steering committee, MOU was signed between state Govt. by the APC and APEDA Chairman in the presence of the than Hon’ble Chief Minister, Mr. Raj Nath Singh and I was lucky to witness this historical moment

Senisitization, orientation, capacity building : It was a great initiative of APEDA(….), MARKFED(The Punjab…) & NIAM (National ….) to sponsor more than seven dozen programs for varios stack holders including farmers through their capacity building programs on pre-harvest and post harvest in UP & Punjab through my organization HPMI(Horti….) in association and support from State Horticulture Departments, CPRI(Central..) and PAU(Punjab….). After getting inspired with the success of Punjab and UP, the MP, West Bengal and Bihar Govt. also took the similar initiatives.

Potato Policies : It was the West Bengal Govt.which took the initiative to formulate the Potato policies followed by Bihar and UP. I assisted all the state Govt. to formulate their policies and my assistance was very well acknowledged by West Bengal and Bihar Govt and even I was given the opportunity by Hon’ble Chief Minister Mr. Nitish kumar to present the Policies in a function which was attended by more than ten thousand farmers.
In Punjab,a Punjab Potato Board was announced by the than Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Prakash Singh Badal but it could not the day of light and still in hibernation. A similar initiative was patronized by the than Secretary Mrs. Radha Singh, IAS on my proposal and NIAM(National….) was given the responsibility to promote POTAT PROMOTION GROUP but due to some negative officials who acted as blockers which cold not even be removed by the than DG Mr. Anurag Shrivastava, IAS and it died it’s own death.
The GOD FATHER of my Humble Poatato Mr Anil Swarup,IAS constituted a four member task under his Captainship having Mr. S.S. Channy, IAS, Mr. A.S. Rawat and Dr. Satyen Yaadav as member for setting up infrastructure at ports and in importing countries to boost exports with 100% APEDA support but no agency came forward to take this initiative further and implement. So, a great opportunity was missed. An interesting opportunity to link the politics with humble potato came to me through Shri Salman Khurshid, whose wife was contesting the assembly election from Farukhabad which is the largest potato producing area. It was a pleasant evening, when I was called by the than MD, Markfed who had been identified as GOD FATHER OF PUNJAB POTATOES, for a visit to his place and when I reached there I was introduced by Mr. Khurshid and Mrs. Luis Khurshid at his residence because they were friends. I had never met Mrs. & Mr. Salman Khurshid in person except knowing him through media,so it was great. After a formal introduction, I learnt that they are here to take Mr. Bains’s help in developing Farukhabad as Potato exporting area to support the local farmers. I was very happy to learn that but this happiness did not last for a long when I discovered that Mrs. Khurshid is contesting election from the area that is why she has developed love for humble potatoes of Fraukhabad. Though, little disappointed after knowing the fact but in spite of that I was happy that at least I got an opportunity to test my model and otherwise also it was a instruction of Mr. D.S. Bains who was one of the most liked and respected person for me and it was a pleasure to contribute some thing to his friend, so I immediately committed that “you will hundred percent win the election” but Mr. Salman said that “Dr. Yadav, this is not as easy as you said”. I said either you trust or don’t trust and more over trusting me is not going to cost you even a penny so what is the harm. Anyway, he was happy with my gesture of extending cooperation.

Next morning, I called my friend Dr. Jagpal Singh and discussed this innovative opportunity and I was happy that he was as excited as I, so we got together with a determination that we will make it happen. We prepared a common strategy and decided to focus on Farukhabad but during exploration visits we met Mr Rajiv Tandon, a man of commitments and value system at Kannauj who was running a cold store called Manimau cold store, so we decided to add Kannauj also in our first phase of sensitization and orientation programs. We planned a series of activities/events in the region to support Mr. Khurshid’s statement that now the potato farmers will be benefitted (the majority of the farmers grow potatoes and normally do not get remunerative prices).

Varietal improvement : Farukhabad farmers are very backward as far as the potato farming is concerned because they never know the varieties. Whatever was being grown for decades, they were continuing with that without seed replacement which was deteriorating their quality as well as affecting the yield. So, we organized a program on “VARIETAL IMPROVEMENT IN POTATOES”. People were surprised to see the different kind of potatoes, collected from different ago-climatic zones. During the workshop, farmers started asking the availability, so our organization HPMI took the lead and supplied the different varieties of potatoes with the help of Horticulture Department. So, this activity set the pace for future.

CIPC Treatment : There was a Company, who had an technology for process grade potatoes. Two university colleagues Dr. Sajiv Anand and Mr. Pankuj Verma were working in this company called UNITED PHOSPOROUS LTD, so they also approached us as resource person for convincing farmers for technology adoption. Since, we wanted many of such farmers meetings to sensitize farmers, so we accepted their offer and joined their team and organized many programs in Farukhabad, Kannauj and Agra region.

Potato mahotsava : In a meeting with Mr Salman Khurshid, I gave a idea of Potato Mahotsava, which clicked well in his mind and he immediately instructed his team and a large Potato mahotsava was organized, which was attended by all the companies, agencies, line departments and thousands of farmers and gave a real momentum to our plans to give a message to the Farukhabad farmers that some thing is going to happen for the development of the farmers.

AEZ program at Agra : Since,agri-export zone concept was on the move and I was given the responsibility to prepare a project for that ,so we decided to test the model and involve all channel partners in the AEZ concept to take their feed back. With this aim, a program was organized by my organization HPMI which was partly funded by APEDA. This program was attended by country’s all the agencies, Departments and companies engaged in Potato cultivation, processing and research & development. The program was chaired by the than Agriculture Production Commissioner, Shri A.P.Singh, IAS, a very aggressive and visionary person. All the line department and senior state Govt. officials including Chairman APEDA and other central Govt. officials. The media coverage of this program made potato promotion campaign more aggressiv

Pre & post-harvest training :Since, there was a problem of potato quality, so APEDA funded pre-harvest and post harvest training programs for the farmers and HPMI organized seventy programs in UP and Punjab to orient farmers to adopt best package and practices to produce export quality produce. These programs really developed a good impact in UP and Punjab.

Role of Potato in Indian Politics : Though, the potato and onions are not staple crop but they carry the inherent strength to change the streams of Indian Politics, if we see the history during last one decade, we will find enough evidences to underline this statement. I am quoting bi-election in Punjab and UP where BJP had won both the seats and one case of assembly election of Kayamganj seat in Farukhabad where Mrs. Luis Khurshid took the support of our humble potato

Export flag off from Agra : Since, there was lot of noise about potatoes and exports, so Shri AP. Singh, the than Agriculture Production Commissioner, Govt. Of U.P. asked me to export few containers of Potatoes for exports because a state Govt. federation had procured some potatoes as a part of Govt. interventions. So, I used my Dubai contact and took an order from Al Maya Group, a hypermarket chain of Dubai and exported first shipment from Agra. After completing the UP project, when we reached back Chandigarh, we came to know the Punjab farmers have dumped potatoes on the roads,infront of DC’s office as a protest. When I went to meet Mr. Bains, MD Markfed, he was going to attend CM’s meeting, convened to discuss the potato glut situation. Mr. Bains asked me to accompany him. When I went there, there was a big noise about potato prices etc. Mr. Bains asked me, if I have a solution. I said, and said that “I don’t think that it is a problem”, Hon’ble CM reacted on my statement by saying in Punjabi “Ussi Pagal Haige…..”. Than I apologized and explained my plan.
“Since,Punjab Markfed has announced to give Rs 2.00 cr to Orissa relief fund, so if Markfed makes an announcement that Markfed will buy the potatoes at Rs 2.00 per kg the prices will rise to Rs. 2.00 from Rs. 0.20 p.And after that a delegation should be sent to Sri Lanka and Dubai to get few orders for exports and make an announcement that Markfed will export potatoes and the price will increase further because farmers will start holding potatoes anticipating the good prices in future. Some how it clicked and Hon’ble CM made this announcement that Punjab Govt. has fixed up a MSP of Rs. 2.00 for potatoes and this worked and prices started rising and within no time, the prices were Rs. 2.00.

Visit to Colombo and Dubai :Since, there was bi-election, so Hon’ble CM ordered MD Markfed to take a delegation to Dubai and Sri Lanka and include me and the farmers from Punjab and we made the trips and by using my links, I begged few trial orders for exports and when we came back a big media hype was created and prices increased to Rs. 3.50 and my promise was fulfilled.
On the basis of this success story, Sri Raj Nath Singh, Hon’ble CM, U.P. also announced for intervention and as a result of which both the Govt. won the bi-elections and potato prices were stabilized.

Introduction of Potato graders : During the elections, the Chairman Mandi Board, Mr. Shiv Pal Yadav announced that Mandis in Potato growing areas will be provided Potato graders to facilitate farmers. Since, the announcement was made, so U.P Mandi Board officials made a serious attempts to buy eight potato graders. The tenders were released abut they could not get the suppliers. Since, it was announced by Hon’ble Shri Shiv Pal Singh, so the entire state Govt, machinery got activated. Since, my background and my international connections were known to Mr. AP Singh, the than Additional Chief secreatrty, U.P, so he called me and asked for my assistance and I was introduced to Dr Rajneesh Dube, IAS, the than Director. I met him and discussed this issue and promised to help. In turn, Dr. Rajneesh Dube had promised to release the payment in three days and that too on merit. Though, I had not not participated in tender but some how they managed to give me an order to supply the graders and I also kept my words and imported the graders from Germany by air (no heavy machines are air flown) and supplied but this gave me a life time experience and my one third of the money is still not paid because I did not pay the commission to the officials and these potato graders never graded even 1 Mt potatoes.

Birth of a specialized Potato Company : Mark-hort Potatoes India ltd.: Since, Markfed was little aggressive and I was there as their Honorary advisor, so it was decided to promote a joint venture company called Mark hort Potatoes India Ltd for carrying out all the new agribusiness project including potatoes. We started very well and took very innovative assignments including making efforts to make the entry of Indian Potatoes to Europe but it could not happen because of casual handling of protocol issues by CPRI and PAU, which was being coordinated by Markfed under the leadership of a visionary MD Mr. D.S. Bains IAS. We took lots of initiative with the help of our business Associates in Dubai, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Doha and Germany to set up the protocols for exports of Potato and test the market.
After the change of Guard from Akali Govt. to Congress, the leadership was changed from Mr. D.S. Bains, IAS to Mr. S.S. Channy, IAS, another committed bureaucrat but with lesser love for my humble potatoes. Though carried flag but with not very strong willingness rather official compulsion from the Govt. and the half hearted efforts could not take to a destination and left this Company at a mile stone, though many mile stones were crossed e.g. introducing transport subsidy for Potato export to other states as well as other countries, which was replicated by UP Govt. and west Bengal Govt. also.

Breaking Ice with European Union for exports : With the help of my associates in Dubai Mr. Michael Bunch, Director of a leading food processing company and Mr. Sukhdev Singh, MD, Food Freshly GmbH, we identified a large company called Agropa which was handling 80000 MT fresh potatoes in a Year for marketing in Germany and Late Ms Isris Handler,MD of a fresh produce handling company in Munich, Germany, we broke the ice and under the leadership of Mr. S.S. Channy, IAS, we signed an agreement with Agropa to export potatoes and yellow onions to Germany, if we complete the protocols of RUCIP (the regulatory norms for Potato marketing in Europe). Though, APEDA extended all possible support to fund this compliance procedure but careless handling by CPRI, we could not cross this mile stone and hence all the efforts of three years went to the drains.

Export to Sri Lanka :Export to Sri Lanka was a low profile and need based activity due to crisis in Sri Lanka and it was being handled through Tuticorin port through importers who had their base in Tuticorin which was unorganized and mainly through launches. To exploit this sector, I studied the bottle necks in Sri Lanka and after removing the bottle necks (equalizing the import duty with Pakistan which was almost double in comparison to India) and few more, we started the regular export to Sri Lanka.

Seed Exports to Sri Lanka : After the ware potatoes, the next agenda was to push our seeds from Punjab and again the major hurdles were there e.g. unwillingness of the Director, Phytosanitary Regulations due to his personal interest which was taken care by the Holland companies who were exporting for many years. Again, this challenge was taken with the help of my business associate Mr. N. Ganeshan, MD, Arvind Trading Co. Sri Lanka, we met Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Sri Lanka, who was kind enough to extend his cooperation in removing the barrier. He was kind enough to accept my invitation and visited India for meeting with all our Hon’ble Ministers for Agriculture and other agencies like APEDA and finally, the barrier was removed and moved one container from Punjab and ice was broken.

Exports to Middle East and South east Asian Countries : There was a complete mis-match in price realization and cost of sea freight and other logistics but the APEDA and State Agencies tried to increase the competitiveness which helped in making an entry to these markets but thanks to other agencies like Container Leasing Corporation who joined hands in extending cooperation to set up the protocol for taking the potatoes in tried to help ….
Due to typical bureaucratic and some officers with negative approach who never wanted to push the business of perishables in the Markfed. Inspite of lots of non-cooperation from Markfed officials, we started the trials with Agropa, Germany and Iris Handler to grow export quality potatoes as well as brown onions in Punjab but finally this was a futile exercise and waste of time.

CPRI Meerut /CPRI Jallandhar : Though, these centers are meant for facilitating the farmers but the Joint Directors and few scientists always give patronage to few of their large farmers and after their retirement get involved in seed potato business. These farmers have formed their groups and dictate their terms when prices are opened for seed potatoes which normally make them suffer because their cost of production goes high due to high seed cost and they do not get good price.

Consumption promotion at Chandigarh : Keeping in mind the lower per capita consumption of Potatoes, I thought of promoting potato consumption and organized a event at Rose Festival at Chandigarh and served 23 recipes of Potatoes, which really made people sensitized and gave them a surprise that potato can be consumed in so many ways.
Later,we did the similar program at Lucknow in a Industry fair where we served 73 recipes of potatoes. It was the maximum crowd pulling stall and created a big impact on people who were educated by telling many advantages of eating potatoes through posters and we removed many myths about our humble potatoes. This also gave us a idea to set up exclusive potato shops in India.

Exports of Potatoes :I exported potatoes to Sri Lanka, Dubai, Doha, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia during last one decade. Though, the journey was not smooth but it was memorable. Initially, the importers were not convinced about our quality, so I decided to take our potatoes to various countries and some how I could break the ice. Later there were logistics problem. To solve that APEDA and Container leasing Corporation also helped us in undertaking few trials and later I requested APEDA Chairman to organize a International conference and buyer-seller meet for potatoes for which he agreed and I assisted in this program in 2003. Similarly, in 2008, two dynamic bureaucrats Mr Sanjeev Chopra, IAS and Mr Atanu Purkayastha, IAS organized the next International event at Kolkatta which became a biennial event and this event has successfully been organized by ICC and assisted by me in 2010 and 2012.

Impact : As a result of almost one decade efforts, our humble potatoes have global presence as fresh potatoes as well as processed potatoes. The farmers are happy. They are getting continuously good prices. Many food processing units have come up and our processing capacity is increased by at least fifty times and still growing at a good pace.

What Next :We should go back to 2001 and focus on AEZ because it was little pre-mature but now, the concept of AEZ is being followed without knowing that it all was covered under AEZ. Let’s integrate with all stake holders and form consortiums and promote producer companies to address the entire value chain and set up post harvest facilities at farm level as well as logistics and material handling facilities and dedicated transport corridors for moving the potatoes during peak harvest season to facilitate exports.
And at last, let’s take a pledge that we wall will continue our efforts to ensure that India becomes the world no 1 in Potato business by 2030.