Fall in prices discouragesfarmers to cultivate potato

Yasir Wardad Fall in prices of potatoes for the last two consecutive years have discouraged many farmers to cultivate the crop this year. Experts, however, have given their opinions in favour of fixing the production target based on actual demand in a bid to avoid the growers' possible losses. Md Shuja Uddin, a farmer at Charcharabari union in Nilphamari Sadar hasn't lifted his potato from the cold storage at Jaldhaka upazila in the district fearing possible losses. Talking to the FE he said he would squeeze his land for potato farming this year. Last year he produced nearly 500 maunds of potatoes on 10 bighas of land (1 bigha=30 decimal). The production cost per bigha was Tk 20,000. "Last year the price fell by Tk 120 to 140 per maund and I stored nearly 140 sacks (per sack 85 kg) of potatoes at cold storage". "But the price maintained its previous level of Tk 680 to Tk 700 per sack (85 kg) while the cold storage charges for the same is Tk 450," he said. The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said it has fixed 0.47 million hectares this year to produce potato and the yield may surpass last year's 8.3 million tonnes. According to the Department of Agriculture Marketing (DAM), the country had a potato storage facility of 2.1 million tonnes in its 315 cold storages in 2011. A high official of the DAM requesting anonymity said the country has a annual demand of 6.5 million tonnes of potato. Responding to a query, director of DAM Md Siddiqur Rahman told the FE that DAE along with the food department, BBS and DAM can form a committee which would determine the actual demand of potato-- for consumption as food or manufacturing diversified products or for export. "It would benefit all including producers, traders and consumers," he said. The DAE could encourage the farmers to grow other crops including oilseed or pulse seeds, he commented. DAE director general Md Habibur Rahman told the FE on Thursday: "Availability of quality seeds, facilitating the farmers with initial inputs and favourable weather helped boost the potato production in recent years". According to the DAE, the production of Potato was 3.2 million tonnes in 2003-4 fiscal year (FY) which reached 8.3 million in 2010-11 FY. When asked whether the acreage should be reduced or not, Md Habibur Rahman said: "The farmers are good in arithmetic. If they feel that it would not benefit them they wouldn't go for potato." "I think, we need not to squeeze potato production, rather we need to increase storage capacity both modern and traditional which would be cost effective for the farmers," he said. According to the Bangladesh Cold Storage Association, 1.0 million tonnes of potato will remain unsold this year for lack of demand. The Association urged the government to appropriate potato in government's safety-net programme to avoid the losses of both the cold storage owners and farmers at a meeting, held on October 30 at the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI). President of the association Md Jasim Uddin stressed the need for changing food habit of the people and taking potato as an alternative to rice. According to the DAE, potato farming has already started in many places across the country where Aman harvest is over.