When a demand and supply story goes horribly wrong, a bumper crop — like that of potatoes in Uttar Pradesh — isn’t good news for farmers. The annual potato production in the state, like last year (2007-08), looks set to cross 130 lakh metric tonnes (MT) in the current season (2008-09) as against the usual and favoured 100 lakh MT.

In Agra division, the potato belt of UP, as many as 10 lakh bags of potatoes (five lakh quintals) of the last season kept in cold storages were destroyed as the farmers refused to lift the produce due to glut in the market.

Even at the low rate of Rs 250 per quintal, the cost of destroyed potatoes is over Rs 12 crore.

“The glut in the market has adversely affected both the farmers and cold storage owners,” said Raghavendra Singh who owns a chain of cold storages in Sirsaganj of Mainpuri district. “We had no option but to throw away the stored potatoes of last season as the farmers were not interested in taking them.”

The Agra region alone produces more than 30 per cent of the country’s total potato yield.

According to agriculture experts, farmers have to spend Rs 5, 500 for cultivating potatoes on one bigha of land. The returns from the same isn’t even Rs 3,000 at present

“Potato farmers are indeed in dire straits and this is largely due to lack of food processing industries in the state,” said C P Tewari, director of the state horticulture department, adding, “The Government is taking measures for the export of the potatoes to other states and also providing export transport subsidy.”

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