Potato growers are in quandary due to fall in production this year in Rangpur and Dinajpur zones.

Growers said the yield of potato has come down about 50 per cent than the previous year, as climate was not favorable.

Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources said a total of 91,500 hectares of land were earmarked for potato cultivation in eight districts of greater Rangpur and Dinajpur this year.

But 81,853 hectares of land were cultivated and the production target was fixed at 16,37,000 metric tons of potato this year in these districts.

Of the total land, 27,176 hectares were cultivated in Rangpur, 5,410 hectares in Gaibandha, 4,150 hectares in Kurigram, 4,300 hectares in Lalmonirhat, 12,800 hect-

ares in Nilphamari, 19,040 hectares in Dinajpur, 5,590 hectares in Thakurgaon and 3,387 hectares in Panchagarh.

The harvesting of potato is now going on in full swing all over the eight districts.

Abdus Sattar, a grower of village Kukrul in Sadar upazila of Rangpur said he produced 90 bags (each bag containing 85 killogram) of potato on an acre of land this year against 150 bags last year.

An officials of DAE, however, said the fall in production was caused due to low quality of potato seeds.

Besides, the growers are facing problem in absence of marketing facilities of their produce. Taking advantage, the traders and cold storage owners are purchasing potato from the growers at throwaway prices.

There are about 24 cold storage

in greater Rangpur having capacity of about 14 lakh bags of potato.

Growers sources said an 85-kg bag of potato is being sod between Tk 250 and Tk 300 according to quality.

The potato growers demanded of the authority concerned to set up separate hats in these districts to ensure fair price of their produce.