Every rose has its thorn! Bumper yield plagues potato farmers

Bumper potato production has placed farmers in a quandary across the country. Farmers are forced to destroy potatoes due to falling prices and lack of storing facilities. Despite record harvest, the country has witnessed farmers’ unrest in potato-growing areas.

Thousand of potato growers of Aligarh, Hathras, Mathura, Agra, Firozabad, Etawah, Mainpuri, Kannauj and Farrukhabad in southwest UP; Hoogley, Paschim Medinipore, Burdwan, Bankura and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal; Nalanda, Samastipur and Vaishali districts in Bihar; Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have either resorted to destroy their produce or left it at farms and cold storages.

Under this scenario, not only farmers but owners of cold storage are also incurring losses. As per the initial data, potato production is estimated at 493 lakh tonnes in 2017-18 compared to the actual output of 486 lakh tonnes in 2016-17.

Currently, the normal large ‘mota’ potatoes are being sold from cold stores at Rs 225-250 per bag Rs 2-4 per kg). The medium ‘gulla’ tubers are fetching just Rs 90-100 a bag (Rs 1-2 per kg ), while small ‘kirri’ fetch even lower price at Rs 50-60 a bag (Rs 1 to 50 paisa per kg). Interestingly, the cost of storage is Rs 3 to Rs 4 per kg.

“The cost of potato is less than Rs 1 a kg (depending on the quality) while storage cost is about Rs 3 to 4 per kg. This was why potato growers are upset and dumping their produce in protest. Farmers are finding difficult to get production cost that comes around Rs 15,000 per hectare potato in UP, Bihar and West Bengal,” said Yudhvir Singh, a potato grower of Western UP.

As per the Agriculture Ministry, there were 7,645 cold storages with a capacity of 34.95 million metric tonnes in the country. Of these, 95 per cent of cold storages in the country are owned by private sector, 3 per cent by cooperatives, and the remaining 2 per cent under Public Sector Undertakings.

When asked, a senior officer of the Ministry said this is the State subject and the Centre can’t do anything. On Saturday, the Yogi Adityanath Government in Uttar Pradesh faced an embarrassing situation as quintals of potatoes were thrown by the farmers in

front of the Vidhan Sabha building and outside the Chief Minister’s residence.

This was not the first case when farmers resorted to destroying potatoes due to lowering prices and lack of cold storage facilities. Ranvir Singh of the Bharatiya Kisan Union said farmers are not getting adequate price for their harvest, they do not know where to keep it.

“Faced with a similar situation last year, farmers had protested by dumping their produce on roadsides, when prices dropped to Rs 1 per kg. Even the cost of storage is Rs 3 per kg. The last few years have witnessed a surplus production of potatoes.

“As a result, potato growers have been forced to sell their crop at throwaway rates. Last year, farmers distributed potato free of cost during their protest at Jantar Mantar in the national capital,” Binod Pandey, member secretary of Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, said.

“Farmers, who could stock their produce in the cold storages, have already done it. But still, there is a large quantity lying in the fields, Pandey added.

In a typical year, potato is planted in mid-October and early November. After harvesting towards February-March, only 15-20 per cent of this crop is sold. Farmers keep the remaining 80-85 per cent in cold stores — where the potatoes are maintained at 4-5 degrees Celsius — and make staggered sales through the summer and monsoon months.

The major produce is stored in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

As per data, UP produces 14,430.28 tonnes of potatoes per year and the yield is 23,901 kilogram per hectare. Followed by West Bengal where production and yield of the potatoes is 11,591.30 tonnes and 29,982 kilogram per hectare.

Bihar has ranked third in potato. The yield of potatoes is 20,593 kilogram per hectare. In Haryana the total potato cultivation covers 29.47 hectares and its production is about 22,939 kilogram per hectare.