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Unusually low potato prices frustrate farmers, traders

Most of them are not lifting the vegetable from cold storages

S DILIP Roy, Lalmonirhat
Potato formers and traders in the district are frustrated due to unusually low prices of the popular vegetable this year.
Huge quantities of potato have remained stockpiled in cold storages due to the situation.
In previous years, over 90% of stored potatoes were taken back from seven cold storages in the district by this time, but now the withdrawn amount is only 30%, sources said.
The present market price of potato is so low that the traders and growers are not feeling like lifting the preserved item from the storages, said Mohsin Ali, a potato grower at Harati village in Lalmonirhat Sadar.
A 86-kg potato sack is now selling for Tk 650 to 700 in different wholesale markets and sales centres while the total cost for production and storage stood at Tk 1300 to 1400, local farmers said.
The last season saw a bumper production of potato due to favourable climatic conditions but the growers are now worried about recovery of the production cost, let alone profit.
Repaying the loan taken from banks, money lenders and NGOs for the cultivation remains an added concern for many farmers.
This year 12 thousand growers and traders
preserved seven lakh and 65 thousand sacks of potato in seven cold storages of Lalmonirhat district but only 30% of it was taken back till October 19, cold storage sources said.
"I preserved 80 bags of potato at a local cold storage but I haven't lifted any bag till now as the price is too low. I asked the cold storage owner to take the rent by selling the preserved potato," said Seher Ali, a potato grower at Panchagram village in
Lalmonirhat Sadar.
During the last couple of years, many farmers got encouraged to cultivate potato with the promotion of modern farming systems, including introduction of a hybrid variety.
"Most of the potato farmers opted for high yielding varieties and adopted scientific methods of cultivation, and it resulted in bumper yield. But the growers incurred losses this year as they did not get fair price of their
produce," said Abdul Mazid, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture Extension in Lalmonirhat.
The government should take initiative for exporting potato, he said.
The potato growers will lose interest in cultivating the vegetable if steps are not taken to ensure its reasonable price, said Shaikh Abdul Hamid, president of Cold Storage Owners' Association in Lalmonirhat.