Rangpur farmers facing huge losses as potato kept in cold storage rotting

RANGPUR, Oct 25:  Around 50 thousand sacks of potatoes, stored in Krishikal Biz cold storage at Ujirpur village under Pirganj upazila in Rangpur district this year have gone rotten. As a result the affected farmers and traders are incurring huge financial losses.   
The affected farmers blamed the cold storage authority for the adverse situation saying that about 40 thousand sacks of potato of last year were lying deposited in the cold stage. But the authority without removing those sacks of old potato stored 0.15 million sacks of new potato this year. For this reason their potatoes got rotten, they claimed.   
Hearing the news of potatoes getting rotten many farmers and traders rushed to the cold storage to know the condition of their stored potatoes. Shakwat Hossain of Ujirpur village under the upazila said his 50 sacks of potato have gone rotten. Amirul Islam another potato grower of the same village said he is not sure about the fate of his stored 400 sacks of potatoes.
Expressing despair over the circumstances a number of affected farmers including Shahidul Islam of Soyekpur village, Ashraful Islam of Chatra area and Ayub Ali of Ramnathpur village told FE that they got a bumper production of potato this year and kept those at the Krishikal Biz cold storage with the hope to make good profit but all their hopes got shattered as they found almost
all their produce gone rotten. Moreover, they are yet to get any compensation for their losses from the authority concerned, they alleged.
Traders Bachchu Mia and Jonab Ali of Bhendabari area in the Upazila said that they bought one thousand sacks of potatoes and stored those in the cold storage expecting a good profit. They also had to take bank loan for this purpose. But most of the potatoes have gone rotten. "We are worried about repaying our loan", they said.
Some residents of Ujirpur village alleged that the rotten potatoes being dumped beside the cold storage are spreading foul odour polluting the surrounding environment.
Jahangir Hossain, owner of the cold storage, however, claimed that only 15 thousand sacks of potatoes, not withdrawn by the farmers last year have gone rotten. But the potatoes which were kept in the cold storage this year did not rot. Last year many potato growers did not withdraw their stored potatoes from the cold storage due to lower price of the produce, he further said. They have already removed the rotten potatoes from the cold storage and so there is no possibility of further rotting, he added.  

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