Rain adds to potato growers\\\' woes

Rain that prevailed over the last three days across the country has caused immense sufferings to the farmers who are struggling hard to store potato in their homesteads aiming to avoid the recent price debacle.
Price of potato at growers' level in the country is now hovering between Tk 1.0-Tk 2.5 (US$ 0.012-$ 0.032) per kg which is the lowest in the globe, according to the Department of Agricultural Marketing Bangladesh (DAM), global commodity web-portal, Index Mundy, and USDA.
Due to a shortage of storage capacity, the government is encouraging farmers for home-based potato storage at least for one month to avoid the unimaginable lower price, according to the ministry of agriculture.
"I've harvested potato at five bighas of land and got 100 sacks (per sack 100 kg) of the produce; it cost me Tk 52,000 to grow the potato," Md Abdullah, a farmer at Sundarganj under Gaibandha district said.
"I sold half of the crop at Tk 9,500 last week and prepared a space in front of my home to store the rest of the potato, but rain has ruined my hopes," he said.
He informed that the cold storage owners in their territory are rejecting to take their produce saying that there is no space.
Abdur Rahman, a farmer at Khansama upazila under Dinajpur district told the FE that half of his harvested produce (nearly 40 sacks) was at the field which has got damned by rain Saturday.
"Most of the wet potato will be ruined", he said.
"I've told the neighbours to collect my potato and bring those to their homes if they wish as labour cost is now more than the price of potato," he said.
"We failed to cash back even 10 per cent of the investment this year", he added.
He said: "Price of different varieties of potato is now Tk 1.0-2.5 per kg in my territory while the cold storage charge for the same volume of the produce is Tk 4.2."
The prices of potatoes (granola, diamond, cardinal varieties) at farm level in Rangpur, Bogra, Rajshahi and Comilla regions are between Tk 100 and Tk 250 per sack, sources said.
The prices of the produce at retail level are Tk 4-5 per kg (in Rangpur) and Tk 8-10 per kg (in Dhaka, Chittagong).
Many of the farmers the FE interviewed said the rain has added salt to their wounds as they have no access to cold storages.
However, cold storage fare is Tk 4.2-Tk 4.5 per kg across the country, according to the Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA).
BCSA Chairman Md Jasim Uddin said nearly 420 cold storages across the country can store 3.6 million tonnes of potato which is 44 per cent of the total production.
This year the cold storages had a carried-over amount of 1.0 million tonnes, he said.
Farm expert and chairman of Subaltern Communication Research Centre (SCRC) Delowar Jahan said nearly 5.0 million tonnes of potato is now at farmers' homesteads.
"The price of potato will increase as soon as the produce will be out of farmers' hand; it is the common scenario for every agro product," he said.
The government should declare potato farmers as disaster-hit and provide them with cash incentives, he suggested.
He advocated for introducing 'community-based cold storage' at every union to save the farmers from any further disaster.
"Local government division can easily implement it if the government takes such a programme," he said.
Farm economist ASM Golam Hafiz Kennedy said the government has to make a check and balance considering the production of potato and its actual demand.
"Many of the districts in the northern belt are appropriate for onion farming. The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) should encourage the farmers there towards cultivating onion instead of potato," he suggested.
"Exports should be increased to use nearly 1.5-1.6 million tonnes of surplus production," he added.
According to the monitoring unit under DAE, potato production was a record 8.6 million tonnes last fiscal year (FY '13) at 0.419 million hectares.
"It was the seventh highest production in the world. This year the target has been set at 8.65 million tonnes cultivated at 0.469 million hectares," deputy director at the monitoring unit of DAE Md Rafiqul Hasan said.
"Nearly 80 per cent of harvest has been completed by February 15," he said.
He informed that most districts in Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions, and Munshiganj, Manikganj, Narsingdi and Kushtia districts are the largest potato producers in the country.
According to the Directorate General of Food (DGoF), the annual demand for potato is 6.5-7.0 million tonnes against the production of 8.6 million tonnes.