Despite a bumper potato harvest in Cumilla, farmers are in trouble over storage and fair prices. The potatoes they grew have become a millstone round their necks. Unable to find space in local cold stores, they are keeping them in the open under makeshift tarpaulins, and many have seen their potatoes start to rot. After waiting more than a month and a half for prices to rise, many farmers are now selling cheaply.

In Mithalma, Abidpur, Monghata, Shikarpur, Panchkitta, Halagao, Lower Char and Kakiar Char villages of Burichang, heaps of potatoes lie in open spaces, under trees, in courtyards and inside houses. Many have heaped them in the fields and covered them with tarpaulins, while others are opening the tarpaulins to pick out and throw away rotten and insect-eaten potatoes.

Farmers said producing a maund of potatoes cost Tk 750–800 in all, yet a maund sells wholesale for only Tk 550–600. That has forced them to store potatoes by traditional methods, but if it rains, poorly planned storage will see their hopes rot away.

Farmer Sajjad Hossain said: "Including seed, ploughing, fertiliser, pesticide and labour, it costs about Tk 750 to produce a maund. But now when we want to sell, the paikars say a maund is worth Tk 550–600, so we can't sell. I have 500 maunds covered with tarpaulin in my courtyard. Many like me are taking the risk of keeping potatoes in their courtyards and will sell if prices rise a little. If it starts raining in the meantime, everything is lost. After the lesson of this year, I can't grow potatoes again."

A farmer named Mostafa Mia said: "I'm selling potatoes at Tk 13 a kg wholesale, yet retail potatoes sell for Tk 25–30. What wrong have we done by growing potatoes? At the end of the season, when stocks run low, the same Tk 13 potatoes will sell for Tk 50–60. If we could store the potatoes ourselves, we would profit instead of the hoarders."

Potato grower Sumon Mia said: "I planted potatoes on 42 decimals this year as a hobby, and the yield was good. I now have about 60 maunds. In other years paikars came to the house to collect potatoes, but this year no one is coming. I've heard potatoes brought from the north are selling more at Nimsar bazar. Collecting potatoes from villages needs both labour and transport, so they aren't interested in coming here."

Farmers complain that potatoes brought from the north and elsewhere can be sold at higher prices by citing transport and other costs. Those who send potatoes by truck remain responsible for storing them, so arat owners, bearing no liability for rot if the potatoes go unsold, favour traders from outside. Meanwhile, local cold stores have filled up with potatoes stored privately.

Md Azim, a potato arat owner at Nimsar bazar, said: "We are in touch with cold stores all over Bangladesh. As far as we know, there is no space anywhere. Still, if the government can look into it and make room in cold stores for our local potatoes, the farmers will survive. If this huge quantity of potatoes can be saved from rotting, potato prices will stay within people's reach all year."

Aiub Mahmud, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Cumilla, said the district's potato target this year was 10,254 hectares, and cultivation took place on 9,061 acres. Production was 22 lakh 90 thousand 78 tonnes, more than last year, he said. "After the 2024 flood we tried to meet the target for potato cultivation. Where potatoes were grown, yields were very good. But the Department of Agricultural Marketing will work on the potatoes still unsold."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.