Potato farmers in Bengal hit badly as prices drop sharply

‘Bumper crop’ this year, heavy losses due to demonetisation behind dip in prices

Purnendu Basu

“I have sustained a loss of ₹2.80 lakh this year and have to repay a bank loan of ₹8 lakh. The drop in potato prices has reduced me to a beggar,” says Uttam Das, a potato farmer from Bardhaman district, who has cultivated the crop in 11 acres this year.

Mr. Das is one of the many potato farmers in the State who has been badly hit by the sharp decrease in potato prices.

Compared with last year when potatoes sold at ₹550 per 50 kg, the price this year has gone down to ₹200 per 50 kg.

According to potato merchants, this year’s “bumper crop” along with the heavy losses sustained by them last year due to demonetisation are the key reasons for the drop in prices.

“While last year the total potato yield in Bengal was 95 lakh tonnes, this year it has shot up to 1.50 crore tonnes,” said potato merchant Biswanath De.

He pointed out that last year both the potato merchants and the cold storage owners sustained heavy losses due to demonetisation as most of the transaction in the business is done in cash.

“We (potato merchants) are simply out of cash and last year’s losses have made us apprehensive and forced us into buying potatoes on large scale,” said Mr. De.

‘Almost no buyers’

In Bengal, the main potato producing districts are Hooghly, Bardhaman, Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Birbhum. Usually potatoes are harvested from December to February and then put in cold storage. Merchants start to purchase the crop from March 1 when it is taken out of cold storage. “But this year the crop is lying in cold storages and we have almost no buyers,” said Uttam Das, a potato farmer. Moreover, nearly 20 lakh tonnes of potatoes will probably rot in the fields as the nearly 450 cold storages in the State are unable to store this year’s harvest.

‘Price to increase soon’

Even as he admitted that that there was a problem due to the limited number of cold storages, State Agriculture Minister Purnendu Basu avoided a direct reply on whether potato farmers have sustained losses. Pointing to this year’s high yield, the Minister said the 450 cold storages in Bengal do not have the capacity to accommodate such a large harvest and urged cold storage owners to set up more facilities in the rural agricultural markets set up the State government.

“In agriculture profits cannot be the same every year,” he told The Hindu . On Monday, Mr. Basu claimed in the State Assembly that “currently farmers are getting ₹4.50 per kg of potato and the price will increase soon.”