Distress is writ large across the faces of potato farmers in Uttar Pradesh. Their hopes of encashing the bumper crop year is likely to be crushed, thanks to low warehousing capacity and dearth of processing units in the country?s largest producing state of the commodity. Even as a fresh crop is near-ready to be harvested, around 8-9 lakh tonnes of carryover stock rotting in cold storages would have to be thrown out on the streets or burnt to vacate the warehouses to make space for the fresh stock.

According to Mahindra Swaroop, president of the Federation of Cold Storage Association of Uttar Pradesh, the state is expected to produce 1.25 crore tonne of potato while the storage capacity in the state is for 1 crore tonnes only.

?The new crop is expected in February, which would be stored till October 31. Year after year, production of potato in the state has been going up, while consumption has remained static. Three years back, the warehousing capacity in UP was 83 lakh tonne, which has gone up to 1 crore 7 lakh tonnes at present. The present headcount of warehouses in UP is 1,475. The state would see another 80 godowns by March. However, this is not a permanent solution. We need to find ways to export the crop as well as boost the consumption of potato. We need to have investment in setting up potato processing units, which can make potato powder, potato chips and French fries in the state,? he said.

The potato belt in UP stretches from Agra in the west to Kanpur in central UP. ?The best potatoes come from Agra, Firozabad, Sarsaganj, Hathras, Aligarh and Mathura. Graded-quality stock from these districts mainly caters to the southern Indian market while potatoes from Farukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah and Kanpur usually take care of the needs in Eastern and North-eastern parts of the country, including Bihar, Bengal, east Uttar Pradesh, Assam and the entire north-east. North Indian market gets potato stock from Meerut, Hapur, Badaun, Sambhal and Rampur districts. However, despite having a very good crop which goes all over the country, we farmers get a mere

R3-4/kg while it sells at

R10-12/kg in the markets,? says Rustom Singh, a potato farmer from Khandauli block in Agra.

?The crash in prices due to a bumper crop is making things difficult as we cannot lift the stocks from warehouses, thus forcing the cold storage owners to dump the produce in ditches or burn it. In many places, potatoes have been scattered on the roads,? says Dungar Singh, another farmer of Khandauli block.

Pushpendra Jain, secretary of the Aloo Utpadan Kisan Samiti, said the state government was least concerned about the plight of the cultivators.

No potato processing unit had been set up and no support mechanism was there to help the farmers. ?We need to have MSP for potatoes too on the lines of wheat, paddy and cane. Otherwise, potato growers will always be in distress,? he said, adding that a major policy initiative needs to be taken by the state government to protect

the farmers.