15m potato bags remain unsold in Rajshahi

RAJSHAHI, Dec 22 (BSS): Potato traders and growers have been facing an embarrassing situation with their 15million bags of stored potato in cold-storages in the district. According to the sources concerned, the huge potato remained stockpiled in 26 cold storages as the owners didn't lift those due to dull market price and supposed to fail payment of cold storage fare with the sale proceed. Sources said the preserved potato is being sold at Taka two per kilograms in many of the local markets which is very unfortunate for the traders and growers. Appearance of newly harvested potato in the markets has triggered the disappointment situation further. For the last couple of years, many of the farmers were found encouraged to cultivate potato with promotion of modern farming system including hybrid variety. Most of the farmers were seen opting for high yielding potato varieties and adopting scientific methods of cultivation, resulting in bumper yield, said Abu Bakkar Ali, president of Rajshahi Cold Storage Owners Association. But the potato growers incurred losses this year as they did not get fair price of their produce, he said. To overcome the loss, he sought government intervention for exporting potato. There had been a bumper production of potato in Rajshahi last harvesting season due to favourable climatic condition. But the bumper production could not bring fruit for the growers for low price of potato, which could not cover production cost, he added. 'The farmers are not happy over the market price. For inadequate preservation facilities in the region, they are forced to sell their potatoes at low price incurring loss,' he also said. This adverse situation would have impact on the cultivation of potato in the region in the years ahead as the growers would surely loss their interest to cultivate potato again, he said.