CHANDIGARH: After nearly a year of rock-bottom potato prices, farmers in
Punjab plan to begin dumping their produce, much of which has been stocked since April. Given the glut, many farmers have already abandoned their potato stocks in cold storages as there are no signs of price recovery.
Farmers say ideally a 50kg sack of potatoes should be priced Rs 380, but they are getting only Rs 50 for it in the wholesale markets.
"There are trollies full of potatoes as villagers are offering to sell potatoes at as low as Rs 2 per kg. After the state government failed to provide any relief, farmers had dumped potatoes in Mohali last month. With no solution in sight, many farmers plan to dump potatoes in the rivers in the coming weeks," said
Harinder Singh, general secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal).
Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha, secretary general of
Confederation of Potato Seed Farmers (POSCON), suggested the Centre should have intervened after the crisis began after demonetisation. "The solution lies in concrete steps such as setting up
Potato Board, involving think tanks for long-term policies and getting rid of randomness in policy so that initiatives to export potatoes can work. The international community is expecting from us, but archaic steps like fixing minimum export price hold the farmers back."
The bad run for potato farmers started last year as 70% of the crop was pushed into cold storages and potato seed buyers from
West Bengal did not turn up. Desperate farmers have been forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices to dairy owners.