Although Bangladesh is gifted with bumper harvest of potato this year, it is bringing more misery than smile to 15 million potato growers.
After loss in rice production due to twice floods and cyclone SIDR last year, the farmers produced 8 million tons of potatoes on 500,000 hectares of land.
Director General (Seed Wing) of Agriculture Ministry Anwar Faruq told reporters Monday that the bumper production of potatoes could be possible due to hard labor of farmers.
He said the country produced on average 5 million tons of potatoes in the past few years, but this year the production hit record high of 8 million tons.
Potato growers are puzzled with this bumper production as they have not adequate cold storages to preserve the potatoes.
Presently there are 300 cold storages in the country with a capacity of only 2 to 2.2 million tons.
Anwar Faruq said though good news of bumper production, but it is bringing misery to the farmers who are not getting fair price due to excess production.
He said some 10,000 tons of potato could be exported this year to Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
Potatoes are now selling at 10 taka (1.4 cents) per kg in wholesale markets and at 12-13 (1.7 to 1.8 cents) per kg in retail markets.
Growers in northern Bogra district complain that hoarders are preserving potatoes in cold storages by giving advance bookings. They blocked most spaces of cold storages through advance bookings.
They said due to the advance bookings, many cold storage owners have already hung notices announcing stoppage of receiving potatoes even before filling up the capacity.
The farmers are worrying that most of the potatoes will be rotten if they are not sold in the consuming markets.
In a bid to encourage the farmers to keep on producing potato and get fair price, the government has planned campaign to change of the food habit of the rice-eating Bangladeshis as an associated food.
The caretaker government Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed and Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed are all campaigning for eating potato as substitute of rice to reduce the consumption of rice. Recently, price of rice climbed record high in local markets alongside the price-hike on international market.
In line with the U.N. declared International Potato Year-2008, Bangladesh's agriculture and defense ministries and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have decided to launch a joint potato campaign.
As part of the campaign, a Potato Fair will be organized for the first time in capital Dhaka on May 7-9 to popularize potato among the people.
The Fair will be participated by farmers, agriculturists and officials of the concerned departments. At the fair, there will a demonstration of various recipes of potato, cooking competition, publication of booklet with 50 recipes of potato and rally and cultural soiree on potato.
Source:Xinhua
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