For a state that has an uncanny knack of accruing crises, natural and manmade, Gujarat has landed in yet another problem. For the past one week, the government has been trying to grapple with tuber trouble: a glut of potatoes this year has had panicked farmers looking to the state to buy their produce.

This, because against the net sown area of 49,710 hectares last year, the acreage under potato shot up by 50 per cent to 75,000 hectares this year. Consequently, against a normal production of 12-14 lakh tonnes a year Gujarat saw a production of over 20 lakh tonnes of potatoes.

Eventually, the state government was forced to buy potatoes at Rs 4 per kg from farmers through the Civil Supplies Corporation and sell it to traders, the wholesale buying being conducted through the ruling party-controlled Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees.

“We thought of transferring the extra produce, but the logistics of arranging for transport, either through trucks or railway wagons, proved costlier. So we have now decided to incur the loss so that the farmers do not suffer,” says Agriculture Minister Dilip Sanghani.

Facing an Opposition onslaught, the government even sent official teams to Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad to find out if it could off-load the crop, but the logistics weren’t favourable.

The high yield of potatoes has been attributed to several reasons. While a good produce last year led to the farmers increasing the area under potato, an extended winter this year led to a better yield. Farmers were also encouraged by the presence of private companies offering a good price for the produce.

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