Low prices, high production: Punjab faces potato glut again

Confederation of Potato Seed Farmers (POSCON), “is a 15-year low price”.

“The situation is so bad that last year’s harvest is still lying in the cold stores, while this year’s crop has already started arriving,” he rued.

Sangha added, “The problem is that last year, farmers received a good price for the crop as there was a shortage of potato in the country. Buoyed by this fact, farmers cultivated more potato this season. We are very soon heading towards a situation where potato growers will have to once again throw their produce on the roads.”

Another potato grower, Bhavjit Singh, echoed similar thoughts, “There is no other way out and the state and central government will have to intervene. They will have to swing into action and save the farmers.”

Punjab has about one lakh hectares of area under potato, which is the largest cultivated crop.

Dr Amarjit Singh Sandhu, Deputy Director, Horticulture, while agreeing that prices for potato at present are at an all-time low, said, “These prices will harm the farmers who have purchased the new seed to cultivate the crop. But since the usual practice among potato growers is that they use their own seed, the prices are not that bad.”

Sandhu added, “Low price is not as much a problem as is high production. The ground reality is that the area under the potato crop has gone up by 5 per cent statewide and encouraged by the good prices of last year, the farmers at present are trying to get two crops instead of one.”

Sangha, meanwhile, suggested, “When Punjab is hankering after diversification, then care must be taken that farmers who do not sow the usual rice-wheat crops should be given some kind of protection. The Centre can announce Minimum Support Price (MSP) for potato or the state government can lower prices of freight so that farmers can take the crop to other parts of the country. Export is another option the government can look into.”

Sangha added, “Last year, farmers were getting Rs 5 per kg for the crop. That was good as we were facing a shortage last year. The farmers can be given something like Rs 4 or Rs 4.50 per kg. A farmer has to spend Rs 3 per kg to grow potato and the least profit that he deserves on top of this cost price is Re 1.”