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A bumper crop leading to price crash and subsequent farm suicides in 2015, may have impacted the potato cultivation in the current season. At least 16 farm suicides were reported last year after the price of tuber crashed below ₹2 a kg.
While both the West Bengal government and trade sources refer to a marginal drop in sowing area this season, unconfirmed sources from the potato growing regions report substantial drop in farmers’ interest.
Acreage may dip The cold storage lobby that takes active interest in trading, however, says area of cultivation in prime potato growing regions of Burdwan, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur shrunk by five per cent when compared to last year.
“The price crash following a bumper crop and suicides is likely to put off new cultivators. This will impact the area of cultivation,” a cold storage owner said.
He, however, predicted that such “marginal” drop in sowing area will not impact the final production in a big way. West Bengal produced 110 lakh tonnes of the tuber last year. Purnendu Basu, State Agriculture Minister, appeared more focussed in keeping potato prices affordable. “West Bengal ensured lowest price of potato when compared to other States,” he said.
Basu has no data of the current sowing area. The State government also denied any farm suicides last year.
“Potato production is unlikely to be impacted. However, the area under cultivation may go down, if at all, because of floods in south Bengal districts,” he told BusinessLine .
Delayed harvesting Meanwhile, potato prices are ruling 25-30 per cent higher than last year.
The Jyoti variety and other hybrid varieties are now selling around ₹750-800 a quintal (₹7.5-8/kg) against last year’s ₹600 per quintal (₹6/kg).
Traders blame it on delayed arrival of new stock. “Prices have moved up slightly because of delayed harvesting and absence of new stock of tuber,” a cold storage owner said.
According to him, prices should soften soon as harvesting of the early tuber varieties (like Pukhraj and Jyoti) are expected to pick up from the mid of this month.
Currently, cold storages here have a stock of around 2.5 lakh tonnes, which coupled with some new stock, are expected to last for around a month.
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