Early potato planting has begun in Dinajpur. With favourable weather, farmers are busy ploughing, tending the land, applying fertiliser, collecting seed from cold stores and planting. The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) says early varieties will be grown on about 11,000 hectares in the district. This year potato seed is at its lowest price, but fertiliser and pesticides cost more. Labour costs are the same as last year. Farmers say costs would fall further if they could buy fertiliser and pesticides at the government price.

Farmers are planting Bina-7, Sunshine and Steffi seed as early varieties. In past years the government set the price of this seed at Tk 57 to Tk 66 a kg depending on the variety, but farmers had to pay Tk 80 to Tk 110 a kg. This year the same seed is selling for Tk 15-16 a kg, and farmers say it may fall further.

Dealers buy triple super phosphate (TSP) at the government price of Tk 1,250 but sell it at Tk 1,350. Diammonium phosphate (DAP), priced at Tk 950, sells for Tk 1,050. Muriate of potash (MoP), priced at Tk 900, sells for Tk 1,000. Urea, priced at Tk 1,250, sells for Tk 1,350.

Tunisian TSP sells at Tk 2,000 and local TSP at Tk 2,400; Moroccan DAP at Tk 1,700-1,800 and local DAP at Tk 2,000; Canadian MoP at Tk 1,200, while Russian MoP sells at the government price. But no dealer is giving a receipt, and several farmers said dealers refuse to sell fertiliser if they ask for one. Farmers also use cow dung, mixed fertiliser, gypsum, zinc, magnesium and boron on potato land.

Across several upazilas, farmers are preparing land and planting seed potatoes in rows. An acre needs 25-28 maunds of seed potato and yields 140-150 maunds. The crop is harvested within 50-55 days of planting. Although Agrahayan is the potato season, farmers are planting early in Ashwin in the hope of higher prices.

Juel Islam, a farmer from Ghughudanga village in Sadar upazila, said: "Potato seed is much cheaper this year. But if we could buy fertiliser at the government price, the cost of growing potatoes would fall. Dealers are selling fertiliser far above the government price, and if we ask for a receipt they say there is none and turn us away. So we are forced to buy at higher prices without receipts."

Several dealers were contacted but none would speak. A former leader of the BADC Seed and Fertiliser Dealers' Association, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Potato seed is much cheaper in the market this year. The government has not yet set the seed price, so BADC's potato seed has not left the godowns yet. There is a syndicate, which is why fertiliser sells at higher prices. No one can do anything alone even if they want to."

Joint Director (Fertiliser) Md Jahangir Alam did not answer calls on his mobile phone for three days in a row about fertiliser allocation and overpricing.

Md Afzal Hossain, deputy director of the DAE in Dinajpur, said: "The district's potato target has not yet been finalised. Last year potatoes were grown on 47,236 hectares. Early varieties are expected on 11,000 hectares. If fertiliser is being sold at higher prices, we will look into it and take action against the dealers. Our monitoring team is working in the field."

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