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Tuesday, 7 March 2017

Inadequacy of cold storage space for potato crop - Bengal farmers

Potato farmers in West Bengal, which is the second largest producers of potato in the country after Uttar Pradesh, is in severe shortage of cold storage capacity which may cause rural level socio-economic crisis in many districts of the state if not properly managed.


As the potato sowing and reaping timeline goes, farmers start loading their produce at cold storages during March by paying an advance to procure storage authorization known as ‘bond.’ The stock starts coming out of storage from May onward depending upon market demand and pricing level.

One of the major issue to influence return from potato farming is inadequacy of cold storage space. But, due to high production, the gap between demand and actual storage space has become too wide this year making the situation critical across the state.
According to Patit Pawan Dey, president of West Bengal Cold Storage Association, "against total storage capacity of around 60 lakh metric tonne (mt) with around 575 cold storages, our estimated production this year is around 110 – 115 lakh mt."
Owing to the situation, “I may need to throw out my entire production as arranging bond has become too difficult,” said Milan Das a ground level farmer at Dhupguri, one of the highest potato yielding zone in northern Bengal. The picture is almost same in all potato producing districts.
At the same time, local market ground level price of different varieties has also come down to Rs 4 a kg at some places while, “our production cost is over Rs 5 per kg,” said Das.
Agriculture department officials assured, “The state Government has already intervened into the issue to bring the situation under control.”
But, “They cannot increase storage capacity overnight. Thus, after investing almost everything on this, now as a penniless man, I have no option other than committing suicide,” said Jiban Das a potato farmer in Coochbehar with around 10 tonne of his produce lying in field under the open sky.

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