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Farmers at a fix with bumper potato yield

32 lakh MT produced against last year's 1.46 lakh MT in 8 northern dists: AED officials training farmers in indigenous preservation method

F.AM ASADUZZAMAN, nilphamari
A bumper potato production in eight northern districts has compelled farmers to preserve the item in their indigenous methods as the total output far surpassed the capacity of cold storages.
Officials of Agriculture Extension Department (AED) are also helping and training farmers to preserve potato at homes.
“Many of them (farmers) have started taking potato as a substitute for rice", AED Deputy Director in Rangpur Noor Mohammad told this correspondent.
AED officials estimated that about 32, 00,000 tonnes of potato have been produced in 1,78,114 hectares in eight northern districts against last year's 1,46,0000 tonnes from 1,06,400 hectares. This year's target was to bring 1,12,200 hectares under potato cultivation.
The production this year is 220 per cent more than hat of last year, Noor Mohammad said. The total yield is worth about Tk 3,400 crore at the rate ofTk 900 per 84 kg bag.
He said space constraint in cold storages is a great problem now. Farmers are trying to overcome the problem by adopting indigenous preservation methods.
This region has emerged as the biggest potato producing area of the country, superseding Munshiganj and Bogra.
Rangpur region of AED com-prises Rangpur, Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Kurigram. Lal mop ifljat, "Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts.
Noor Homhammad said the weather was very favourable for potato cultivation this year and
diseases were rare. Less than one per cent of potato fields was attacked with diseases, specially late blight in January, mainly due to severe cold.
Agriculture officials said there are 54 cold storages in eight northern districts having a total capacity to store 4,32,600 tonnes, which is onlyl3.5 per cent of the total production.
Every day, farmers are taking hundreds of bags of potatoes to different cold storage but return disappointed as there is no space.
Owner of Mukta Himagar in Jaldhaka, Sayed Ali, said he has capacity to store one lakh bags, which has already been filled up. "We are miking in villages urging farmers not to bring potato to cold storages", he said.
Farmer Mizanur Rahman of Itakhola village in Nilphamari Sadar upazila said he cultivated potato on 24 bighas.
By making earnest request to the manager of a cold storage he got space for only ,100 bags while he harvested over 900 bags. He sold 500 bags at a rate of Tk 900 per bag and preserved the rest 300 bags in local process at his house, Rahman said.
Farmers said about Tk 15,000 was spent for one bigha and the produced potato is now being sold at around Tk 32,000.
This correspondent during visits to a number of farmers' houses saw they were preserving potato in their own way, which keeps the vegetable intact for 5-6 months, they said.
AED additional director Kazi Nazimuddin said that they have initiated special training programs for farmers in different upazilas in the region to train them to preserve potatoes in local methods.