Syed Shemul Parvez :
Farmers in the northern district of Joypurhat have sown potatoes in advance on a large area of land to make up for last year’s losses. Though at the beginning, the price was good, it fell quickly. Now the granola variety of potato is being sold at Tk 180 to 200. That means the wholesale price of potato is taka five per kg.
Last year, potatoes were sold in the field at Tk 25-26 per kg. But this time the potato is being sold at tk 5 per kg. As a result, farmers are not able to raise production costs. That is why they have demanded fixing of potato price as done in the case of paddy, rice and wheat.
But, the Department of Agriculture says farmers are getting lower prices this year due to lower demand for granola varieties potatoes. Therefore, the Department of Agricultural Extension is recommending the farmers to cultivate potato according to demand and variety.
It is learned that the seeds had to be bought at higher prices as potatoes were planted earlier to recover the last year loss.
At the same time, the prices of fertilizers and agricultural inputs also increased. Farmers claim that one bigha of potato has cost taka 20 to21 thousand . And the potatoes produced from that land are being sold for taka 10 to 11 thousand . As a result, the loss is about taka 10 to 11 thousand per bigha.
Besides, there is a lot of difficulty in extracting potatoes from the land and selling these in the market. So the farmers are forced to sell potatoes directly from the land even though the price is low. Raju Ahmed and Milon Hossain, wholesale buyers of potatoes, said, “The potato market is not what it was the day before. Prices are plummeting day by day.
The price of the raw market cannot be said accurately. But the potato market is not rising at all, they added.
‘ Lokman Hossain, a farmer from Ramshala village in Akkelpur upazila, said the government should fix the price of potatoes like paddy, rice and wheat. This will save the farmers from repeated losses.
District Agriculture Marketing Officer. Sakhwat Hossain said, ‘Potato season is going on. This time the outturn of potato has been increased. Actually the prices generally vary from wholesale to retail. If there is any syndicate trade , action will be taken after investigation.
‘ Shafiqul Islam, Deputy Director, Department of Agriculture Extension, Joypurhat, said, “Farmers are still facing losses due to unplanned potato cultivation unlike per the market demand. Therefore, farmers are being advised to cultivate potatoes according to the demand and variety.
It is learned that over one crore tonnes of potato are produced annually in Bangladesh.
A total of 1.06 crore tonnes of potato were produced in the country in the 2020-21 fiscal year, but only 55,000 tonnes were exported fetching USD 51 million,
