Kolkata: A sudden dip in the market-driven potato prices has reportedly led to farmers dying by suicide in Burdwan district, which is known for potato farming. A farmer named Saiyad Abdul Momin (57) reportedly consumed pesticide and died after enquiring about potato prices with the cold storage authorities on Friday. This was the second such death in a week in the same district.

Potato prices have touched an all-time low in the state as the opening price of Rs 800 per basta (50 kg) has gone down to Rs 350 per 50 kg in the ongoing season.

Under the free bond system, a farmer pays an advance deposit for keeping his produce in the cold storage  against a free bond that can be sold to a third party, who has to pay the price of storage plus the cost of produce to the farmer concerned while taking out potato stocks for sale in the market . 

“Generally, in November, about 70 % of the produce is unloaded from the cold storage,” said Samar Ghosh, secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha’s Burdwan unit and a resident of the Jamalpur area. “About 15% stocks are kept for seed purposes, only 15% of the potatoes have come to the open market in this month. This year, about 50% of the produce is still in cold storage and there are no takers of free bonds even though the time of arrival of the new potatoes is fast approaching,” he said.

Saiyad Abdul Momin had sown potatoes on seven bighas and had kept 200 bastas of potatoes in the cold storage. On the rest of his land, he had sown the aman variety of rice and had taken a loan of about Rs 6 lakh, according to his family members. The money was being used to deal with pest infestation on his land. His son, Saiyad Allauddin, told NewsClick that his father was under pressure from moneylenders, who were coming home and issuing threats. As a result, he reportedly died by suicide.

There  has been a dip in free bond potato prices which are fetching as low as Rs 12  per kg, whereas the product is being sold at Rs 30  per kg in Kolkata. According to Samar Ghosh, middlemen are reaping profits while farmers suffer.

AIKS state secretary Amal Halder, told NewsClick that immediate intervention by the state and Agricultural Marketing Department was required to prevent such incidents.

Notably, potato growers are dealing with losses of about Rs 7,000 per bigha since last year as well due to the drop in market prices. The market in the state is subject to huge price variations and volatility. As a result, potato farmers are forced to sell their produce at the meagre rate of Rs 1-2 per kg after harvest.

Middlemen, who purchase the produce at such a low rate, then dump it into cold storage. They reap profits when prices eventually rise. Farmers, on the other hand, have been facing losses despite a good harvest this year.

With the steep increase in the cost of production this year, farmers say that a rate of Rs 600 for 50 kilos of potatoes is a fair price. However, the rate at which they are selling currently is between Rs 350 and Rs 380 per 50 kilos. The state government has declared a price of Rs 300 per 50 kg as the stipulated rate for cold storage owners to buy and store the produce.

There are three ways for potatoes to make their way into the market. A portion of the produce is stored by the farmers themselves, another portion by middlemen and yet another by the cold storage owners – who buy the potatoes at Rs 300 per 50 kg from the farmers. Cold storage owners release batches of the produce depending on the market conditions.

West Bengal is one of the largest potato-growing states in the country. Hooghly district is the hub of potato production in the state and contributes over 40% of the total potato cultivation in the state. The district is known for its high-quality Chandramukhi variety. Over 60,000 farmers from the district are dependent on its cultivation to make ends meet.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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West Bengal’s potato farmers welcomed the many steps undertaken by the state government to assure fair prices to their produce without bringing in moneylenders and middlemen, reported the Telegraph on April 13, 2021.

Cold storages were filled at maximum capacity in the wake of a bumper crop that anticipated huge sales for the 15 lakh-odd potato farmers. The agriculture marketing department estimated 115 lakh tonnes of potatoes were produced in the state against an average annual harvest of 90 lakh tonnes. Moreover, peasants owned 70 percent of these stocks.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) government employed schemes such as buying of stocks from peasants and issuance of Kisan Credit Cards, hoping to gain favour in the potato belt of Hooghly, East Burdwan, Birbhum, West Midnapore and parts of Murshidabad for the Assembly election. According to agriculture department officials, the TMC would have struggled to retain power if they lost people’s favour in this part of the state.

Accordingly, instead of resorting to distress sales like earlier sales, farmers held onto the produce until they availed deserving prices. Government officials considered this a significant decision because the wait indicated farmers were in a better financial position. Further, Kisan Credit Cards provided easy farm loans for 80 percent potato farmers,  who no longer needed to interact with moneylenders.

Earlier in mid-February, potato prices decreased to Rs. 4 per kg during harvesting. Farmers were in deep trouble as the input cost was estimated to be Rs 5. for producing a kilogram of potato. However, the government bought 10 lakh tonnes of potatoes at Rs. 6 per kg on February 23 to relieve the burden on farmers.

According to The Telegraph, increased paddy procurement also provided benefits to farmers to invest better in potatoes. Despite the benefits, farmers added that the government still needs to help with the sale of cold storage produce.

Hooghly district farmer Milan Kumar voiced a hope that the administration will help him sell his two tonnes of stored potatoes outside the state if the price is below Rs. 12 to Rs.14 per kg. Similarly, Birbhum district’s farmer Rishi Adak asked the government to provide more cold storages in the potato belt along with the assistance already provided.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been promising this last demand to potato farmers during his election rallies. However, in response the TMC states that it has been working towards that end for the past few years. Regardless, experts said that such a move will also benefit neighbouring states such as Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh in the dry season. This will also help with competition against other states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat that enjoy better infrastructure and thus capture the market in the absence of other state’s export policy and storage capacity.

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