Potato going for Re 1 a kilo,farmers dump crop on roads

“Those who are selling crop which was stored in cold storage are getting just Rs 1.5 per kg. The farmers who are harvesting early sown potato crop are getting Rs 3 per kg and these are the lowest rates. Prices should have been at least Rs 5-6 per kg to save farmers from losses,” a potato grower from Jalandhar said.

In a scene reminiscent of Jharkhand where the farmers last year dumped the bumper tomato crop on the roads as the produce was selling fpor 50 paise per kg,the potato farmers in Punjab too have taken a similar step to highlight their woes.

With their being no major demand from other states,the farmers said if state government fails to help them export the crop to other countries,they would be forced to dump nearly 50 lakh bags, each containing 50 kg potato on the roads. This would translate into 2.5 lakh tonnes of potato.

Potato growers said that the state government should either take the onus to export the crop to other countries or provide freight subsidy so that the farmers could transport it to foreign shores.

Following the sharp dip in the prices,the farmers say they can not send it to other states. “Even storing the crop in the cold storage is not feasible due to high charges of nearly Rs 70 per bag,” said a farmer.

“In the last season I had sent 5,000 bags to cold storage. I have been to sell only 2,000 bags that too at a very low price. Now,I have dumped the remaining 3,000 bags at various places as I cannot afford to pay the rent at the cold storage,” Amarjit Singh,a potato grower from of Chak Chela village,said.

Other farmers like Joga Singh and Swaran Singh,both from Jalandhar,also dumped upto 400 bags each by the road side.

“Farmers have been forced to dump the last season’s crop,as there are no buyers and most of them can’t bear the expenses of cold storage,” said Jaswinder Singh Sangha,general secretary of Jalandhar Potato Growers Association (JPGA).

The prices of potato have crashed from Rs 800 per quintal last year to Rs 100 to 150 per quintal this year. “There was a bumper crop in Punjab in January this year. Other states such as UP and West Bengal too recorded good produce,resulting in low price of potato,” Sangha said.

“In fact,there is no fixed price for the crop harvested in January-february 2011 lying in the cold stores. The new crop is being sold at Rs 300 per quintal,” he added.

Nearly 50 lakh bags (2.5 lakh tonnes) of the last season’s crop are still lying in the cold stores.

It may be noted that Doaba region with nearly 85,000 hectares under potato production leads the state in producing the crop.

JPGA press secretary,Iqbal Singh Chatta,said that that last year Punjab produced more then 2.1 million tonnes of potatoes. In the current season the figures would go up. The state has a capacity to store nearly 16 lakh tonnes of potato in some 500 cold stores.

Sangha added that they have met the government authorities several times since January this year to make arrangements to export the potato to other countries,but to no avail.