LUCKNOW: It’s problem of plenty for Uttar Pradesh’s potato growers. A glut in production and cold storages’ drive to empty their warehouses for new stock in the coming season has sank the prices to such an abysmal level that it is not good enough even to support the transportation cost to the mandis.
Result: Thousands of tonnes of potatoes is being dumped in the open across the potato belt – the south west region of the state comprising districts like Agra, Mathura, Aligarh, Etawah, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Hathras and Farrukhabad. Such wasteful decomposition of huge volumes of potato is a perennial problem in UP.
This time also, due to low prices in the wholesale market, potato growers are not returning to cold storage warehouses to reclaim their produce which has already begun to rot. Cold storages owners have no choice but to dump thousands of sacks on roadside and in fields where it serves as biofertilizer for the next crop.
As per the sources of State Horticulture department, at present, the stockists and cold stores owners are dumping the produce which is selling at as low as Rs 10 per sack of 50 kg which comes around 20-25 paise per kg to clear the storage space and get it spruced up to store the next crop which arrives around mid February. It takes six weeks’ time for hygienic cleaning and maintenance, so owners want to evacuate the entire storage before December 31.
Similarly, since the farmers are not finding the value worth the cost of transportation from warehouse to wholesale market, they, too, are not turning up to take their produce from the warehouses. To take the potatoes from cold storage centres, farmers have to pay a storage fee of Rs 110 per packet.
In a typical year, only 15-20 per cent of the crop is sold at the time of its harvesting. Farmers keep the remaining 80-85 per cent in cold stores and make staggered sales through out the year. In July, the wholesale price was Rs 400 per packet. But there has been a continuous fall in prices since then following which the farmers have simply decided not to take the stored produce away.
UP's estimated potato storage capacity is 12.46 million tonnes, commensurate with its production. Cold storage owners normally vacate the entire warehouse during December. But this year, it has been an ongoing tale since October last.
First the warehouse owners asked the farmers to take their produce out by October 31. This deadline was the extended to end-November, then December 15 and now December 31 is the final date for evacuation.
UP contributes highest over 31 per cent to country’s total potato production. Each year, the land under potato cultivation is growing exponentially and so is the production. This year, the potato production in the country has gone up by around 11 per cent. Approximately, 80,000 hectares of land is used for potato cultivation in state’s potato belt in Agra division only.
For the first time ever, Yogi government fixed minimum support price (MSP) for Potato at Rs 487 per quintal in a bid to encourage potato growers. However, majority of potato growers feel that an export policy over potato and also its
processing should be put in place by the government in order to provide a suitable market to the produce especially in developing countries and Gulf to get good returns.
Meanwhile, the horticulture department’s authorities claim that strict action will be taken against those dumping potatoes in open areas. As per the norms, potatoes should be dumped in pits and covered properly under the supervision of authorities concerned.