Disgruntled farmers reluctant to store potato in cold storages

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Our Correspondent | Published: March 19, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

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RAJSHAHI, Mar 18: Farmers of potato growing upazilas of Godagari, Tanore, Puthia, Durgapur and Paba of Rajshahi are reluctant to store their potatoes in the cold storages this year because of recurrent losses for the last couples of years.
It is learnt, despite increase in rent of preservation of potato at cold storages frequently, the farmers of region who used to store their potato in the cold storages were incurring loss due to low market price of potato for years. This year the price of stored potato fell to Tk 120 to 150 per sack (84 kg) and hundreds of cattle rearers were seen to feed their cattle-heads with potato instead of other fodders because of a throwaway price of potato.
Shahjahan Mia(50), a potato grower of Chaiytanyapur village under Godagari Upazila informed, he incurred a huge loss by storing potato at the cold storage this year(last year). That is why, he said, he was selling all his harvested potato at the markets. He further mentioned, by storing potato expecting a windfall profit, hundreds of farmers of the district have to feed their stored potato to cattle heads. He said, by selling freshly harvested potato direct in the market was more profitable than storing and selling those later on.
Shahjahan further informed, he cultivated potatoes in 13 bighas of land this year whereas he cultivated in 18-bigha last year but failed to get any profit.
He said, he stored 500 maunds of potato in cold storage during last season. For the last two months, the stored potato has been discharged from the cold storage. As a result, some potato was getting rotten at the floor of his house and some he managed to sell at Tk 140 per sack (84 kilogramme).
It is learnt, this year a huge areas of land have been covered with potato cultivation in the upazilas of Tanore, Godagari, Durgapur, Puthia and Paba. Farmers informed, harvesting time of potato has already been lapsed about a month ago but due to a very low market price, many farmers did not harvest potato in early time. Now, the price in the market is increasing and farmers are busy collecting potato from their fields. Many farmers opined, they would rather sell their potato in open market than to store that in the storages.
Potato farmer Monirul Islam(45) of Naohata village under Paba upazila informed, this year he cultivated potato in seven bighas of land which costs him taka 26,000. He hoped to get at least 100 maunds of potato after harvesting. He said, during this week, the price of red cardinal potato is being sold at taka 900 per sac(84 kiligramme) and the white one is at taka 800 per sack. He hoped, he would get at nearly 700 maunds of potato from seven bighas of land and hoped to earn a substantial profit by selling that in the open market.
Jamsed Ali of Sidhna village informed, he has already sold potato harvested from three bighas of land in the open market and got a satisfactory price. He further said, last year during the same time the price of potato was the same like that of this year but by storing potato at the cold storages hoping for a huge profit, he incurred a huge loss. Even he failed to recover the cost of cultivation of the potato by selling the stored potato last year, he mentioned.