Profit eludes potato farmers
Although potato harvests are yet to begin in complete swing in many districts, farmers in the united states are witnessing a sharp fall in price.
Growers of the favorite vegetable come to mind over getting fair prices of their manufacture, which will be another blow along with huge losses incurred from other edibles, including cauliflower and cabbage.
The price started dropping some 10 days back, said farmers.
Farmers said those for sale right from the discipline to traders were choosing Tk 8 to Tk 10 per kilogramme (kg), excluding labour cost, depending on variety, quality and moisture content.
At local retail market segments, one kg of potato was offered by Tk 12 to Tk 15.
The crop is sown from October to December every year and is ready for harvest within 90 days. The peak time for harvest commences from the finish of February, explained farmers.
Diamond, Granola, Asterix and Holland are popular varieties cultivated in the northern and the areas in the united states, said the Department of Agricultural Expansion (DAE).
The DAE estimates that farmers planted the tuber on 4.86 lakh hectares in today's season, up 4 % from 4.65 lakh hectares in the previous season which fell under fiscal 2019-20.
Farmer Abu Taleb of Ramzibanpur village under Dinajpur sadar upazila said sowing of the first varieties was profitable.
But only a small number of farmers may reap the advantage of getting profitable prices, he said, adding that a lot of farmers in his area cultivate potato after harvesting Amanpaddy.
Taleb sowed potato on four bighas of terrain this season. He said prices started falling rapidly just lately. Just two weeks ago, he profited on reselling his potato at Tk 18 per kg.
However, as harvesting received pace and more potatoes started arriving available in the market, prices commenced to fall.
On Monday, he had to opt for just half the costs, at Tk 9, that was 12 per cent significantly less than his production expense of Tk 10.26 per kg.
"If the falling tendency in prices continues, I will suffer massive losses," Taleb said, adding that he invested Tk 55,000 behind each bigha of land.
He said to have already harvested potatoes from most of the four bighas of area, getting around 80 handbags (67 kg per tote) of manufacture per bigha.
At the prevailing price, Taleb would suffer a loss of Tk 30,000 from potato this year. This would get another blow for the grower as he incurred losses from additional winter crops incorporating cauliflowers and cabbages.
"I am still offering each little bit of cabbage at Tk 3," he said.
The problem is worse for marginal farmers.
For example, Anwar Hossain, another farmer of the same village, said he previously sowed potato on 67 decimals of rented territory spending Tk 25,000 and had to market his whole harvest at Tk 8,000.
He pays the dog owner Tk 8,000 each year. "After paying each one of these, my profit is nearly zero from potato this year," he said.
Toroni Chandra Sarkar, a good farmer of Narayanpur village in Nawabganj upazila of Dinajpur, said he suspended building harvests from 3.5 bighas of land on arriving at know about the low prices prevailing in the markets.
He'd delay harvest by 2-3 weeks with hopes of a rebound on the market.
Different farmers of the district, however, said rates would drop further through the peak on harvests, especially from early March.
"If the harvesting begins on a massive scale, prices would generally fall," explained Azizul Islam, another farmer of Dinajpur sadar upazila.
Traders will gain storing the potato found in cool storages, he said.
Md Manik, a low cost buyer of potato on Kaharol upazila, said he was purchasing only good quality of potato from farmers paying Tk 11 per kg.
Speaking with The Daily Star more than the telephone, he said he stores potatoes at various wintry storages every time and that the price increases from mid-April.
Md Moniruzzaman, deputy director of the DAE product at Rangpur, said there is an increase on potato farming this year. As a result, risk of losses increased for farmers, he said
Mohammad Yousuf, director standard of the Section of Agricultural Marketing (DAM), said the production cost had increased for farmers as they had spent a higher amount in back of seeds this season.
"We are but to finalise the expense of production. However, it is likely to be almost Tk 10 each kilogramme," he said.
The DAM estimated the production cost to be Tk 8.92 per kg the prior season.
Prices at the farm level ought to be at Tk 12-Tk 13 a kg. Otherwise farmers will struggle to make money, he said.
