Bidding adieu to farming

Yasir Wardad | Published: June 13, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Arshadul Islam, a sharecropper at Kalikapur area under Kishoreganj upazila in Nilphamari district, is now pulling rickshaw in Dhaka. The massive price debacle of potato in January-February period has forced him to borrow Tk 0.075 million from moneylenders. And ultimately, he has found his way into the capital this year searching for work.
"I've leased 7.0 bighas of land this year. Land lease and farm equipment cost me Tk 0.12 million and I got nearly 250 sacks (per sack=80 kg) of potato," he said.
"Can you imagine the price of per sack granola variety has declined to just Tk 110-120 against production cost of Tk480-485?" asked the farmer in a morose tone.
"We tried several times seeking little space at our nearby cold storages but failed," he said.
"I'm buying the same produce now at Tk18-20 per kg in Dhaka, isn't it an injustice?" Mr Arshadul questioned.
He said he refused the proposals from some landowners who offered him to grow paddy this year on a shared basis.
"I was forced to abandon rice farming in Boro season and came to the capital city to pull rickshaw to help repay the loan," he said.
According to the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM), potato price in Bangladesh dipped a record low this year when the price fell to just $23-25(Tk1800-2000) per tonne in January-February.
However, the prices of different varieties of potato increased by 11-25 per cent in the city in last two days, according to key kitchen markets in Dhaka.
Granola variety, (the variety is available over the year) was sold at Tk 20-22 per kg on Monday, which was Tk 18-19 two days back.
Cardinal variety was rare and sold at Tk32-35 per kg-a Tk5-7 hike at per kg.
Nurus Safa Yousufi, a potato trader at Moktarpur in Munshiganj told the FE that granola variety is now sold at Tk 1,100 a sack (80 kg) and diamond variety at Tk1200-1250 per sack.
He said traders, who were able to store potato at cold storage this year, are now enjoying at least Tk 6.0 profit at per kg of granola variety.
Mr Safa said that cold storage rent is now Tk 320-350 for per sack across the country.
He told the FE that per hectare production of potato might have reduced this year due to rough weather, which is responsible for the hike.
Subal Sarker, secretary of Bangladesh Bhoomiheen Samity, said cold storage owners and their allied traders made unprecedented profit this potato season.
"The government should give cash subsidy to the farmers to cope with the losses and the Department of Agriculture Extension can make the list of the affected farmers," he said.
Chairman of Subaltern Communication Research Centre Delowar Jahan said the DAM Act, whose draft has been hanging in balance for the last three years, should be passed in the parliament.
"The draft DAM Act has proposed forming a price commission to fix a minimum support price for farmers and monitor retail price over the year to protect consumers' rights," he said.
He said the government can help farmers by increasing storage capacity of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) cold storages where potato growers can store some volume of potato at reasonable price.
Chairman of Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA) M Jasim Uddin told the FE that the cold storage owners also incurred huge losses for the last consecutive years due to having a huge volume of unsold potatoes.
He said: "Higher bank interest rate and high cost of electricity in one hand and price debacle of potato have now made it difficult to run business".
He urged the government to reduce bank interest rate and electricity cost for cold storages and procure potato for the sake of ensuring fair price of potato growers.
The government can procure potato as part of its food safety programmes like Test Relief (TR), Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF), Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) and Open Market Sale (OMS) to offset the loss of farmers, he said.
He noted that the production of potato has reduced in Rangpur region this year due to attack of diseases.
The data from the state-run Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) revealed that potato production stood at a record 8.6 million tonnes in FY'13. The target has been set at 8.7 million tonnes in the outgoing fiscal year.
The total demand for the produce for local consumption, seeds and export is nearly 7.0 million tonnes in the country, according to the Directorate General of Food (DGoF) and.