Railways? help sought to tide over glut

In a bid to get rid of the precarious situation of over production of potatoes in the country?s largest growing state of West Bengal, farmers and trade associations from have demanded freight concessions from the railways and other benefits from the state government. Potato prices, which were ruling at around Rs 22 per kg just six months back, have now come down to less than Rs 6 in retail markets as production this year has risen by almost 73% to 95 lakh tonne.

Officials said as there has no incidence of blight disease in the potato crop, almost 22 lakh tonne are needed to be exported from West Bengal if growers are to get any remunerative price.

According to state finance minister Asim Dasgupta, potato production is likely to touch 95 lakh tonne this year, almost 73% more than last year?s production of 55 lakh tonne. In 2009, almost 30% of the standing crop in West Bengal was damaged due to late blight disease.

Meanwhile, traders said loading of potato from the 402 cold storages in the state is almost complete. Rakes carrying potato have started moving to non-producing states like Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Assam, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Some amount of Bengal potato, mainly the Jyoti variety, could also be sold in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Though, sale of potatoes to other states has started from West Bengal, officials feel that it won?t be enough to absorb supplies as stocks are still substantial.

The state government has decided to step in by procuring around 10 lakh tonne from farmers this year. ?This will help us keep prices at a reasonable level for farmers as well as consumers,? Naren De, state agriculture minister, said, adding the Centre has decided to purchase 9 lakh tonne from farmers of West Bengal this year.

?What is worrying us is the growing oversupply situation,? said Patit Paban Dey of West Bengal Cold Storage Association.

Every year, around one lakh tonne of potato from Bengal is exported to countries like Sri Lanka, Malayasia and Singapore. But, this also will not be adequate in 2010 to end the glut. ?The inter-state sale of potatoes to non-producing states has to increase substantially this year from the average level of 20 lakh tonne,? Dey said.

?We will also ask for multiple point unloading facility of potato. We have to forcibly empty a full rake as the railways do not allow us multiple point unloading,? Dey said, adding that availability of rakes for transporting potatoes from West Bengal to other states is also a big problem.

The loading price of a 100-kg bag of potato at the cold storage is Rs 250 in south Bengal and Rs 275 in northBengal

Farmers said of the current retail sale price of Rs 5 per kg, Rs 2 goes towards sorting, grading and weighing and 50 paise for cold storage. Therefore, hardly Rs 2.50 is left with them as margin for growing potato, which is almost the cost of production.

?If a farmers has to get adequate remunerative price for potato in West Bengal after taking into account the charges for cold storage and loading, the retail price should move up to Rs 7 per kg,? a big farmer from the state said.

Growers don?t even recover production costs in Punjab

Charanjit Ahuja

Chandigarh, Punjab once again seems to heading towards a potato glut with wholesale prices dipping to less than production costs this season. “The prevailing potato price in the state is between Rs 2.00 to Rs 2.50 per kg which is lower than the production cost,” Jang Bahadur Sangha, secretary general, Confederation of Potato Seed Farmers (Poscon) said.

Poscin has been the largest producer of seeds and table potatoes in Asia since the past 40 years producing over 55,000 tonne of high-quality potato. According to Sangha, production cost is much higher in Punjab, which produces quality potato.

The cold storages in the state charge Rs 70 per bag with an added cost of Rs 10 for labour and another Rs 16 as price of gunny bag to save the produce. Thus, a potato farmer in the state spends around Rs 96 per bag for growing potatoes.

According to the Agricultural Market Intelligence Centre (AMIC) unit of the Punjab Agricultural University, area under potato crop varies between 60,000 and 90,000 hectares in the state. It produces 11-17 million tonnes with a yield range of 16-20 tonne per hectare.

The markets are witnessing a potato glut as last year’s harvest is still lying in cold stores while this year’s crop has started coming.

Captain GS Virk, a progressive farmer from Patiala and former director of Seed Certification, told FE, ?Farmers have cultivated more crop this season hoping for a good price.?

A study carried out by the Punjab Agriculture University said farmers should sell their potato harvest in March when the prices are expected to touch Rs 575-610 per quintal. However, prices have crashed and Punjab is heading towards a situation where potato growers would have to throw their produce on the roads once again.” According to officials of Markfed, Punjab sold 6 lakh tonne of potato to various states in 2008. In all, the state sold 200,000 tonne to Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu that year. However, there are no takers this season as West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh are also having a bumper crop.

Farmers from Uttar Pradesh have already flooded the national market with potato selling them at a much lower price. The window of opportunity in the exports market is also closed this year as Australia and the US have exported their produce to the Southeast Asian countries at prices which are lower compared with those offered by the exporters of Punjab.

Already, some farmers’ groups have started asking the Centre to intervene by announcing a minimum support price.