Prudent management of potato needed
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Shahiduzzaman Khan
Bangladesh's potato growers are in dire straits. As the weather conditions remained stable the farmers reaped bumper harvest this season. But due to weak planning they are facing problems concerning storage, and are also not getting the right price for their produce even though they toiled hard to increase production. The problems arising out of bumper production of vegetables are not new. Bangladesh is already burdened with price hikes of some essential items due to increase in international prices. Though potato is being exported in small quantities to some countries in the Middle East, Malaysia and some EU countries, Bangladesh could not reach the desired level due to inadequate attention given by successive governments in the past. There are fairly big markets for potato in the Middle East, UK, USA, South Korea and Malaysia. The Bangladeshi workers in those countries may like to have vegetables from Bangladesh because of sentiment, and the taste of the items. Though some progress has been made during the last few years, it was not really enough. The country's involvement in an export promotion project, jointly financed by the World Bank and the government of Bangladesh (GOB), revealed a few problems. These is dearth of space to carry perishable items like vegetables, lack of grading of vegetables, too much dependency on commercial exporters, and a very few exporters. Last year, the government had launched a programme to popularise the slogan 'Eat more potato and put less pressure on rice' in order to raise the demand for the 'low carbohydrate food'. In support of this claim, the government cited new scientific findings proving that potato contains 80 per cent lower carbohydrate than rice. The common notion that potato is harmful to diabetics was refuted by the scientists. The country's general masses, including the diabetics, should therefore have ample reasons to rejoice. They should be interested to eat more potato now as the price of the food item is quite low. A kilogram (kg) of potato sells at 10 in the retail markets now -- the cheapest vegetable in the kitchen market. Its price is abnormally low in the wholesale markets. Earlier even a super shop was selling potato at Tk 5.0 per kg in its different outlets of the country. Due to extremely low price of the item, the farmers were not getting even their production cost. In order to save the farmers from widespread losses, the country's Potato Advisory Board recommended that a portion of the harvest should be exported immediately and storage capacity in the cold storages be enhanced. A study found that speedy export of a consignment might save over 20,000 tonnes of potato from damage, as there is no space available in the country's cold storages. The advisers suggested that the government should help farmers erect bamboo shelves at some convenient places to store surplus potato for the next three months of the dry season. This is, however, a temporary arrangement. Indeed, potato glut has sent thousands of farmers across the country in the red this season, and as a consequentce, they are compelled to either sell their produce at throwaway prices or pile it up in the field or on roadside, exposing it to sun and rain. Primary official estimates show this year's net potato output is over 12 million tonnes. But cold storage owners say the output reached a new record of 13 million tonnes, and only a quarter of this could be accommodated in the cold storages. Growers, who have failed to gets slots in cold storages and do not have their own storage mechanisms, are counting losses of Tk 100 a maund as potato is now selling at around Tk 200 a maund while its minimum production cost is about Tk 300 a maund. Sensing growing demand for potato starch in international market, local entrepreneurs have now started setting up 100 per cent export-oriented factory of potato starch in a bid to diversify international trade. Potato starch, which has a lot of potential is being used as a raw material in textile, pharmaceutical and paper industry. Though the country's climate is favourable for potato cultivation, Bangladesh has to import about 6,000 tonnes of potato starch every year to meet the local industry's demand. Already buyers from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan and European countries have contacted local entrepreneurs to buy potato starch as the production of potato has been increasing every year. Market analysts say higher bank interest rates between 10 to 12 per cent and lack of diversified use are major roadblocks to creating a viable market for potato in the country. The industry people also blame the government for its poor support for potato-based industry and exports. The country's around 350 cold storages have a capacity of preserving one fourth of its total production, whereas in ideal situation storage capacity should not have been more than 1.5 to 1.6 million tonnes. As per international practices, one-third of the total output of a perishable product should be preserved for meeting off-season market demand. Farmers at the grassroots level claimed that due to unfavourable weather and high cost of seeds, fertiliser and insecticide, potato production had declined two years back. Potato prices had jumped to Tk 25-28 per kg then. The government had to import potato from India to cool down the overheated market. Cold storage owners were opposed to such import. In the wake of such potato glut this year, the government should hold talks with cold storage owners and potato exporters to find out new markets for potato. In addition, the ministries of food, agriculture and commerce should monitor the trend of domestic consumption of potato. The government should even continue to make a passionate appeal to the people to consume more potatoes and less rice, and explain to them the objectives of such a slogan. If the government asks the poor people to consume more potato its price has to be kept stable. Plus points about potato are -- it has more nutritional contents, is lower in price, and may be cooked in different ways, and Bangladesh is already facing serious problem in increasing production of food grains, particularly due to loss of zinc in the soil, and vegetables are less susceptible to zinc deficiency. szkhan@dhaka.net
Bangladesh's potato growers are in dire straits. As the weather conditions remained stable the farmers reaped bumper harvest this season. But due to weak planning they are facing problems concerning storage, and are also not getting the right price for their produce even though they toiled hard to increase production. The problems arising out of bumper production of vegetables are not new. Bangladesh is already burdened with price hikes of some essential items due to increase in international prices. Though potato is being exported in small quantities to some countries in the Middle East, Malaysia and some EU countries, Bangladesh could not reach the desired level due to inadequate attention given by successive governments in the past. There are fairly big markets for potato in the Middle East, UK, USA, South Korea and Malaysia. The Bangladeshi workers in those countries may like to have vegetables from Bangladesh because of sentiment, and the taste of the items. Though some progress has been made during the last few years, it was not really enough. The country's involvement in an export promotion project, jointly financed by the World Bank and the government of Bangladesh (GOB), revealed a few problems. These is dearth of space to carry perishable items like vegetables, lack of grading of vegetables, too much dependency on commercial exporters, and a very few exporters. Last year, the government had launched a programme to popularise the slogan 'Eat more potato and put less pressure on rice' in order to raise the demand for the 'low carbohydrate food'. In support of this claim, the government cited new scientific findings proving that potato contains 80 per cent lower carbohydrate than rice. The common notion that potato is harmful to diabetics was refuted by the scientists. The country's general masses, including the diabetics, should therefore have ample reasons to rejoice. They should be interested to eat more potato now as the price of the food item is quite low. A kilogram (kg) of potato sells at 10 in the retail markets now -- the cheapest vegetable in the kitchen market. Its price is abnormally low in the wholesale markets. Earlier even a super shop was selling potato at Tk 5.0 per kg in its different outlets of the country. Due to extremely low price of the item, the farmers were not getting even their production cost. In order to save the farmers from widespread losses, the country's Potato Advisory Board recommended that a portion of the harvest should be exported immediately and storage capacity in the cold storages be enhanced. A study found that speedy export of a consignment might save over 20,000 tonnes of potato from damage, as there is no space available in the country's cold storages. The advisers suggested that the government should help farmers erect bamboo shelves at some convenient places to store surplus potato for the next three months of the dry season. This is, however, a temporary arrangement. Indeed, potato glut has sent thousands of farmers across the country in the red this season, and as a consequentce, they are compelled to either sell their produce at throwaway prices or pile it up in the field or on roadside, exposing it to sun and rain. Primary official estimates show this year's net potato output is over 12 million tonnes. But cold storage owners say the output reached a new record of 13 million tonnes, and only a quarter of this could be accommodated in the cold storages. Growers, who have failed to gets slots in cold storages and do not have their own storage mechanisms, are counting losses of Tk 100 a maund as potato is now selling at around Tk 200 a maund while its minimum production cost is about Tk 300 a maund. Sensing growing demand for potato starch in international market, local entrepreneurs have now started setting up 100 per cent export-oriented factory of potato starch in a bid to diversify international trade. Potato starch, which has a lot of potential is being used as a raw material in textile, pharmaceutical and paper industry. Though the country's climate is favourable for potato cultivation, Bangladesh has to import about 6,000 tonnes of potato starch every year to meet the local industry's demand. Already buyers from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan and European countries have contacted local entrepreneurs to buy potato starch as the production of potato has been increasing every year. Market analysts say higher bank interest rates between 10 to 12 per cent and lack of diversified use are major roadblocks to creating a viable market for potato in the country. The industry people also blame the government for its poor support for potato-based industry and exports. The country's around 350 cold storages have a capacity of preserving one fourth of its total production, whereas in ideal situation storage capacity should not have been more than 1.5 to 1.6 million tonnes. As per international practices, one-third of the total output of a perishable product should be preserved for meeting off-season market demand. Farmers at the grassroots level claimed that due to unfavourable weather and high cost of seeds, fertiliser and insecticide, potato production had declined two years back. Potato prices had jumped to Tk 25-28 per kg then. The government had to import potato from India to cool down the overheated market. Cold storage owners were opposed to such import. In the wake of such potato glut this year, the government should hold talks with cold storage owners and potato exporters to find out new markets for potato. In addition, the ministries of food, agriculture and commerce should monitor the trend of domestic consumption of potato. The government should even continue to make a passionate appeal to the people to consume more potatoes and less rice, and explain to them the objectives of such a slogan. If the government asks the poor people to consume more potato its price has to be kept stable. Plus points about potato are -- it has more nutritional contents, is lower in price, and may be cooked in different ways, and Bangladesh is already facing serious problem in increasing production of food grains, particularly due to loss of zinc in the soil, and vegetables are less susceptible to zinc deficiency. szkhan@dhaka.net