The announcement was made by the Odisha’s agriculture, fisheries and animal resources development minister, Pradip Maharathy (pictured) at an event in Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT) recently.

The minister said that state government has taken an in-principle decision to establish a second agriculture university in the line of the existing QUAT.

The foundation stone of the new agriculture university will be laid by the chief minister of the state soon, the minister added.

He said an agriculture college would also be opened at the newly-established Xavier University at Pipili.

In order to prevent prices of potato and other vegetables go out of the hand, the minister said that the government will soon open 10 to15 multipurpose cold storages in the state to stock its needs and check prices.

By August-end, two cold storages at Titilagarha and Panikoili will be inaugurated, the minister added.

To have more cold storages in the state, we need to relax electricity charges, for which the minister said that he has written to the chief minister, if the chief minister accepts the relaxation of power charges, all 314 blocks will have cold storages, the minister stressed.