For Rangpur farmers, potatoes were once the cash crop. Figures from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Rangpur regional office and the Department of Agricultural Marketing's annual market reviews show that in seven of the twelve years from 2014 to 2025 potato growing lost money: 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2025. It paid in 2016, 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024.
According to local agriculture offices and farmers, in the 2025-26 season a kilogram cost about Tk 16 to grow, Tk 2 more to bag and move to cold storage, and Tk 6 in storage rent: Tk 24 in all. At the cold-store gate it now sells for an average of Tk 12, a loss of Tk 12 a kilogram, although the government had fixed the gate price at Tk 22. Retail potatoes cost Tk 14 to 15.
The district's 42 cold stores took in 488,638 tonnes this season, and 284,617 tonnes of table potatoes were still stored on 30 September. Last season 165,500 farmers grew potatoes on 66,450 hectares and harvested about 1.957 million tonnes. Mostafa Azad Chowdhury, president of the Bangladesh Cold Storage Association, said farmers in eight Rangpur upazilas left 400,000 sacks uncollected in cold stores last year, losing about Tk 60 crore.
Obaidul Islam of Amrulbari, Badarganj, said he has lost money on potatoes seven times since 2014 and is losing Tk 12 a kilogram on the 300 sacks he stored this year. Biswajit Banik, member secretary of the Rangpur divisional potato growers' and traders' association, said he lost about Tk 70 lakh last year and is thinking of giving up. Mobarak Hossain Monsur of the Rangpur growers' association wants prices set at production cost plus 33 percent and compensation for farmers who lost.
Sirajul Islam, acting additional director of the DAE in Rangpur, said the region grows about 25 percent of Bangladesh's potatoes but has cold storage for only 22 percent of its output, and the crisis will not ease without potato-based industry and exports. Md Khairul Islam, a senior scientific officer at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute in Rangpur, warned that farmers may abandon the crop unless storage, processing, marketing and exports are strengthened. Early potatoes for the new season are already going in.
The report is by Altaf Hossain, Prothom Alo's Rangpur correspondent.
Photo: Hridoye Mati O Manush / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
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