Farmers staged a protest and human chain, dumping potatoes on the highway, against a rise in cold storage rent. They warned of further agitation if arrangements to store potatoes at the old rate were not made within 24 hours. The farmers protested on the highway at Mohendranagar in Lalmonirhat at midday on Saturday (1 March).

They alleged that cold storage owners had doubled the rent without considering farmers' means. Potatoes were stored at Tk 4 a kg last year, but this year the rate has risen to Tk 8. This has put heavy financial pressure on farmers and become a major obstacle to meeting their production costs.

Potato farmers and traders blocked the Lalmonirhat-Rangpur highway for two hours with potatoes and tree trunks.

Mohiuddin Ahmed Limon, former vice-chairman of the Sadar upazila, said the cold storage owners had suddenly raised the rent without informing farmers. "Our demand is that if the rent is not reduced within the next 24 hours, a tough programme of agitation will be announced," he said.

The protesters lifted the blockade after Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila nirbahi officer Avijit Chowdhury came to the scene and assured the potato farmers that their problem would be solved.

He advised the farmers to submit a memorandum to the chief adviser, and said the cold storage owners of Lalmonirhat district had been called to an emergency meeting the next day.

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