• Farmers wait with potatoes at cold-store gates
• Allegations that traders' potatoes are taken into cold stores at night
• Stores can take 10,000 sacks a day, but 25,000 are arriving
• Government rule: 60 per cent of storage for farmers, 40 per cent for traders

On one side, farmers are frustrated at not getting good prices for their potatoes; on the other, they face all kinds of trouble storing them in cold stores. After protests by farmers, the government set the maximum cold-storage rent for potatoes at Tk 6.75 a kg. That brought some relief, but farmers complain that they cannot get as many storage cards (permits) as they need.

Farmers allege that traders now hold most of the space in the cold stores. Even after getting cards, farmers have to wait at the gates with their potatoes for days on end, while truckload after truckload of traders' potatoes is taken in.

Cold-store authorities say that because potatoes kept in cold storage have become more profitable, farmers this year are storing them for sale as well as for seed. That has increased pressure on the stores, which are struggling to cope. Where a store can take in 10,000 sacks a day, farmers are bringing 20,000 to 25,000 sacks or more, causing jams at the gates.

According to the district agriculture department, potatoes were grown on 43,470 hectares in the district this year, with a production target of 966,546 tonnes. Thanks to favourable weather, the department expects production to exceed one million tonnes. The district's 19 cold stores can hold 185,000 tonnes, used by traders as well as farmers. But having made more money from stored potatoes, farmers have this year turned to storing them themselves.

Imran Hossain of Dhupsara village in Kalai upazila said: "I have been going there for several days but could not get a potato card. Yet the cold store is right next to our house, and every night thousands of sacks of traders' potatoes are being taken in."

"It is not just this cold store. In front of every cold store in the district there are lines of traders' trucks loaded with potatoes. Farmers' potatoes don't come by truck. Who will hear our complaint?" he said.

Anwar Hossain of Botoli village in Joypurhat's Khetlal upazila said: "I waited two days to store 25 sacks of potatoes and still could not. Farmers and traders like me are waiting at the gate with hundreds of sacks on trucks, trolleys and vans, but the gate does not open. I don't know when they will be taken. I hear that traders' potatoes are being taken in at night."

Abdul Quddus, manager of Botoli Himadri Limited in Khetlal, told Jago News that the farmers' allegations are not entirely true. Some traders' potatoes have to be stored along with farmers', because they store with them every year. With cold storage having been profitable for two years, farmers are now storing potatoes not only for seed but for sale, which has increased the pressure. He said that although the government rule is 60 per cent farmers' and 40 per cent traders' potatoes, 80 per cent of the potatoes in his store belong to farmers.

Raihan Mondal, manager of M Israt Cold Storage in Kalai upazila, told Jago News that the rent was Tk 6 a kg last year, but this year the cold storage association set it at Tk 8 because of higher bank interest and labour costs. Following farmers' demands, the government fixed a maximum of Tk 6.75 a kg. As a result, demand for storage has risen at every cold store, and they are struggling to cope.

District agricultural marketing officer Mehedi Hasan told Jago News that the rent has been fixed at Tk 6.75 a kg, and cold stores have been instructed not to harass farmers storing potatoes in any way. The whole matter is being monitored, and legal action will be taken against anyone who breaches the rules.

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