Farmers in eight districts of Rangpur division hope to reap considerable profit from early variety of potato driven by demand.
The variety is set to hit the market in a week, farmers said.
The price of stored granola variety of potato in the market is now Tk20-22 per kg in Rangpur and Tk 25-26 in Dhaka, according to the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM).
Last year, newly harvested potato was sold at Tk70-80 per kg in Rangpur and Tk100-120 per kg in Dhaka in November, the department said.
Traders said the early variety will be sold at Tk50-55 per kg at farmers' level in the beginning of harvest.
Md Suza, a farmer at Ramnagar Union in Nilphamari Sadar Upazila, said that he will start harvesting potato on his five bighas (per bigha=30 decimal in the area) of land from Friday.
"We get nearly 60 maunds (per maund=40 kgs) of potato in peak season but we are expecting only 25 maunds at per bigha," he said.
He said output of early variety of potato is less than half compared to that of the seasonal variety.
"Despite the lower rate of production, we make handsome profits from early variety" he said.
"I'm expecting to get nearly 125 maunds of potato worth Tk0.225-0.25 million from my lands this year," he said.
He said production cost was nearly Tk 90,000 of his five bighas of land.
Former official of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and potato expert Dr Azizur Rahman said that early variety potato was first introduced in Nilphamari district by traders of Bikrampur (Munshiganj).
"Many traders encouraged the farmers by providing cash in advance for cultivating potato in the off-season to get handsome profits," he said.
Usually, farmers sow seed in September-October period to get crop in November-December, he said.
"Every year farmers incurs huge loss in the peak harvesting season, but the peasantry involved in early variety of potato farming has no risk of loss," he said.
He said that the farmers plant early varieties of potato like cardinal, and diamond.
"Many farmers, after incurring losses in seasonal potato, have found interest in early potato cultivation", he said.
He said the production may rise this year as the soil was much fertile thanks to rain in September-October.
However, acreage of early variety increased in the key areas this year by 11 per cent, officials said.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Rangpur Region, farmers planted early variety of potato on nearly 15,000 hectares in the eight districts which were 13500 hectares last year.
The highest acreage was noticed in Nilphamari district with 11500 hectares, according to the DAE Regional Office.
Potato production reached all-time high of 8.95 million tonnes in the fiscal year (FY) 2013-14, according to the Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
This year the agriculture ministry has fixed target to get 9.0 million tonnes of potato.
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