Thanks to favourable weather, Naogaon has had a bumper potato harvest this year. But farmers are unhappy because market prices are low compared with production costs. On top of that, a sudden rise in cold storage rent has left them fearing losses.

Several farmers said that last year cold stores charged Tk 300 to 350 a sack to store potatoes, and a sack could hold up to 80 kg. This year, cold storage owners have said they will not allow more than 50 kg of potatoes in a sack, and they have set the rent at Tk 400 for just 50 kg. That is almost double last year's rent, the farmers said.

According to the agriculture department, at least 10 to 15 local and foreign potato varieties, including Cardinal, Diamond, Lal Papri and Sada Papri, have been grown on 25,950 hectares in Naogaon's 11 upazilas this season. The production target from this land is 488,380 tonnes. Potatoes have already been lifted from 45 percent of the land, and the harvest will continue until March. Manda upazila has the largest potato area in the district this year, at 4,850 hectares.

Sohel Rana, a farmer from Chakramkanu village in Shikarpur union of Sadar upazila, said: "I grew a local potato variety on three bigha and got 75 maunds. I sold potatoes from the field at Tk 13 a kg, while it cost an average of Tk 14 to 15 to grow each kilogram. I had decided to keep the rest in cold storage and sell in the middle of the year when prices rise. Meanwhile the cold storage owners suddenly raised the rent. If we store at the higher rent, farmers will be left with nothing but losses, let alone a profit."

Gias Uddin, a farmer from Durgapur village in Manda upazila, said: "Last year, cold storage owners raised the rent in the production season on unreasonable grounds. I thought that under the interim government the syndicate would be broken this time. Now I see that, far from being broken, it has become even stronger. As much as we object to the rent rise this year, we object even more to rent being charged by the kilogram, because potatoes were never stored by the kilogram before. We could store up to 80 kg of potatoes in a sack."

Yunus Ar Rahman, another farmer from Badalgachhi, said that if the cold storage owners' rent rise takes effect, farmers will not get fair prices while the traders' syndicate will become even more active, and there will be manipulation of potato prices for no reason. Consumers as well as farmers will suffer. Unless the administration takes a stand against the cold storage owners now, a major crisis will develop, he said.

Asked about the complaints, Asim Kumar Basak, director of Eastern Produce Cold Storage in the town, said that last year Tk 350 was charged to local farmers and Tk 300 to traders to store a sack (70 kg) of potatoes. This year, a letter from the association gave strict instructions not to take more than 50 kg of potatoes in a sack and not to charge less than Tk 400. Accordingly, farmers and traders will be charged Tk 8 a kg to store potatoes this year, he said.

Abul Kalam Azad, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Naogaon district, said cold storage owners in Bogura district have always dominated the northern region, and they mainly set the storage rent in the region each year. "We have discussed with the agriculture adviser reducing cold storage rent for potatoes in the interest of farmers. The agriculture adviser has already instructed the deputy commissioner of Bogura to resolve the crisis. We hope a fruitful discussion with the cold storage owners will take place soon," he said.

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