Marginal farmers in the northern district of Lalmonirhat lost money on potatoes last year. Before that wound had healed, they borrowed again, bought fertiliser and seed at high prices and planted anew. The fertile soil gave a bumper potato harvest this year, yet there are no smiles on the farmers' faces, only tears of despair. The bumper yield itself seems to have become their undoing.

With no fair price on one side and sudden rain on the other, thousands of potato farmers in Lalmonirhat are spending sleepless nights.

According to the agriculture department, potatoes were grown on 7,160 hectares in the district this year. Because of back-breaking work and costly inputs, producing a kg of potatoes cost farmers about Tk 15. Yet potatoes are now selling for only Tk 8-9 a kg in the wholesale market, in some places Tk 10. Even at the height of the season traders show no interest in buying. With no price and no buyers, farmers are also falling behind in planting their next crop.

On top of this came heavy rain one night, which farmers described as a further blow. Potato fields in low-lying parts of the district went under water. Many had lifted and heaped their potatoes after hard work, but the crop was soaked and caked with mud in the fields before it could reach cold storage. Farmers are now at a loss, fearing widespread rotting.

Jalal Uddin, a potato farmer in Mohendranagar, said: "I was lifting potatoes with 15-16 labourers. I sent the potatoes from 15 decimals to cold storage. Before I could gather the rest, the sudden rain washed them away. Muddy potatoes are not taken at market, and the price is very low. Last time I borrowed to grow potatoes and made a loss; I thought I would pay off that loan this year. I couldn't. The debt has only grown."

Potato farmer Belal Uddin said: "Potatoes have no price anyway; they are Tk 10 a kg at market. Given what I spent, forget profit, I am at a total loss. I borrowed to farm, and selling the crop now will not repay the loan. Farmers are falling into losses like this; the government should look our way."

Sobed Ali, a potato farmer in Amabari, said: "Growing potatoes has left us as good as 'murdered'. I stood in line to buy fertiliser at a high price. Today that crop has no value. I cannot work out how I will repay these debts."

Himangshu Chandra Barman, field and market inspector of the Department of Agricultural Marketing in Lalmonirhat, said prices had fallen mainly because production outstripped demand.

He said the district had average rainfall of 30 mm, but more than half of the potato land had already been harvested. As potato fields have good drainage, the risk of major damage is somewhat lower.

Suggesting a way to avoid such losses, he said that if farmers did not depend on potatoes alone and grew wheat, mustard, sunflower and other crops, they would not face losses like this. Demand for potatoes could also be widened by making various food products from them, and entrepreneurs are being trained in this, he said.

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