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Potato price fall hurts Rangpur farmers

MEHEDY Hasan, Rangpur
Potato dealers and farmers in Rangpur are anxious as they may have to incur losses from falling market prices.
Cold store owners in the district are also in the same position. They have around two lakh tonnes of unsold potatoes nowfromlast season's harvests.
"Potatoes are becoming a reason for concern as neither farmers nor dealers are interested in releasing the item from the cold stores now because of a fall in prices," said Abul Kashem, director of Home Land Cold Store at Pirgachha upazila.
"We are now wondering whether the farmers and dealers would release potatoes at all before arrival of new potatoes in the market."
The potato season begins in November and ends between April and May. This item requires storage for the period between April-May and November. Demand for old potatoes declines sharply when the new potatoes come to the market. This season, farmers and cold store owners will have to count huge £sses for two reasons — price falls and a ilure to sell stored potatoes in time.
"We issued a notice in the local dailies, asking farmers and dealers to release the
potatoes by October 15, after paying rent," said Anwarul Islam Maya, director of Jelema Cold Store at Tapadhan in Rangpur Sadar.
"None but a few, who stored seed potatoes, have responded."
"The cold storage owners who lent money to farmers and dealers against preserved potatoes will be the ones to
suffer the most, as it would be tough for them to realise the loans," said Golam Mostafa Batul, owner of Ranagan Cold Store at Mithapukur.
This season, 30 cold stores in the district preserved around three lakh tonnes of potatoes, including one lakh tonnes of seeds. Over 10 lakh tonnes of potatoes were produced last season over 57,761
hectares of land in eight upazilas of the district, according to Department of Agricultural Extension.
An 84 kilogram bag of potatoes is now selling at Tk550 to Tk600 in local markets.
Alamgir Choudhury, a farmer in Mahiganj in Rangpur Sadar, said farmers spent around Tk 500 to Tk 550 to produce each 84 kilogram bag last season. "To preserve the crop, we need Tk 500 more for each bag as cold store rent, carrying cost and purchase of jute bags," he added.
Choudhury said he has to count a loss of nearly Tk 5 lakh if he sells 800 bags of potatoes that he stored at the present rate.
Farmers will not feel encouraged to cultivate potatoes in the coming season either if they face such losses each time from farming the perishable item, he said. The government will eventually have to import potatoes at high prices, he added.
Mostafa Azad Choudhry, managing director of Motahar Group of Industries, apprehended that they would have to dump a large amount of potatoes this year because of poor market prices.
Motahar Group owns nine cold stores in the Rangpur and Bogra districts.