North Dinajpur district administration to procure 13.2K metric tonnes of potatoes

north dinajpur: The North Dinajpur district administration will procure 13.2 thousand metric tonnes of potatoes from farmers through cold storage so that they do not go for distress selling. Bengal harvests around 140 lakh tonnes of potatoes.

The administration has planned to purchase potatoes from farmers at Rs 6.5 per kg. Presently the farmers are selling their produce at Rs 3 to Rs 4 a kg.

Deputy director of North Dinajpur Agriculture (administration) Safique Ul Alam said: “I believe the initiative of the government will help thousands of farmers who otherwise sell their produce at lower rates. The initiative will also save the tuber growers from heavy loss due to high production this year.”

According to the district agriculture department of North Dinajpur, around 8 lakh tonnes of potatoes have been produced in 28.5 thousands hectare of land throughout the district.

However, the initial satisfaction of potato farmers soon vanished as the market responded negatively amid a glut in production. The wholesale market prices are currently Rs 3 to Rs 4 per kg. While the retail price is Rs 6 to Rs 7 per kg in most parts of the district.

A farmer of Dhantala village, Taiab Hossain told Millennium Post: “The government should take immediate steps to save the potato farmers or else we will be in the streets soon.”

The scarcity of cold storage is a challenge to potato farmers. There are only seven cold storages available in the district with a capacity of 1.1 lakh tonnes of potatoes at a time. All potato farmers are therefore desperate to get their products stored in cold storage so that they can sell out the crop in phases when there is a demand in the market.

In Islampur farmers resorted to protests alleging anomalies in the distribution of bonds of cold storage on Sunday. District agriculture marketing authority, however, admitted the price fall and storage problem emerged as a challenge for the farmers.

Sandipan Roy, district agriculture marketing officer said: “State government has already issued a notification on Potato Procurement Scheme 2023, on March 3. The procurement process will be soon started in the district. Moreover, 15 per cent capacity of the cold storage has been booked for this purpose.”

Safique Ul Alam said: “Among the common varieties of potatoes produced in the district only ‘kufri-jyoti’ is less moist and suitable for storing in cold storage for months.”