BSS, Rajshahi :
Potato farmers are now happy with good yield and satisfactory market price during the current harvesting season everywhere in the region, including its vast Barind tract.
At present, farmers are passing busy time for harvesting the cash crop side by side with transporting those to the local markets or cold storages.
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has set a target of producing more than 35.81 lakh tonnes of potato from around 1.56 lakh hectares of land in all eight districts of Rajshahi division, said Deb Dulal Dhali, Additional Director of DAE here today.
He said topography and climatic conditions are favorable to the potato farming. Apart from, the field level DAE officials and staffs are working relentlessly to expand the modern varieties and technologies among the farmers for making them profitable.
Mobarak Hossain, a farmer of Mougachhi area in Mohanpur Upazila, said the farmers are seen harvesting good yield as it has attained due to suitable climatic conditions. They are also happy with the present market price.
Most of the growers’ harvested better yields of potato in last four to five years.
He has been cultivating potato commercially for more than 15 consecutive years and has brought 50 bigha of land under the cash crop farming this year.
Hossain is now hoping of 200 tonnes of yield valued at around Tk 2.4lakh with profit of around Taka 15,000 per bigha of land.
He said the market price is good. An 85-kg potato sac is being sold at Tk 900 to 950 in local markets at present.
Abu Hena Mostofa Kamal, another commercial farmer of Mollikpur village under Paba upazila, said number and acreage of the modern farming method has been enhanced significantly for the last couple of years because of its better output.
Commercial potato farming has been expanded to the dried lands in massive way during the last couple of years in the vast Barind tract as a result of promoting irrigation facilities by the Barind Multipurpose Development Authorities (BMDA).
Mostofa Kamal said suitable climatic condition for potato farming has been prevailing for the last couple of years.
Besides, the farmers have become habituated to using high yielding seed varieties and modern technologies which are helping them to attain good yield. He said importance should be given on expanding the facilities of processing and preservation to facilitate the farmers to get a fair price round the year.
Besides, time-fitting initiative of exporting potatoes from this region can be an effective means of making the farmers profitable.
Abu Bakkar Ali, President of the district unit of Cold Storage Association, said there are 28 cold storages in the district with storage capacity of four lakh tones every year which is 30 percent of the total production.
He said there is a need of enhancing the number of cold storages for betterment of the potato growers.
Potato farming through net house system for multiplying the tissue-culture based seed-potato successfully has also been gaining popularity in the region.
Mijanur Rahman Kazi, general secretary of Seed Potato Growers Cooperative Society, told BSS that around 500 seed growing farmers were very happy with their satisfactory yield achieved through using the net-house farming method last year.
He said the farming of foundation seed of potato through using tissue culture technology and net-house system has gradually been gaining popularity everywhere in the region for the last couple of years.
