Potato and tomato growers are in great despair as prices dropped to a five-year low this season, causing 35 to 70 per cent of losses, said officials and experts.
Md Akram Ali Mridha, a farmer at Kamarpukur under Saidpur in Nilphamari district, grew granola variety of potato on his three bighas (a bigha equals to 33 decimals) of land this year.
He harvested a total of 90 sacks (80 kgs per sack) of potato investing Tk 46,800, excluding his own labour.
Production cost of his potato was Tk 6.5 a kg.
But the price of granola potato was Tk 320-Tk 340 a sack (Tk 4.0- Tk 4.25 a kg) in his area in the last three weeks, he said.
"I sold my produce at Tk 30,000 as I needed money for my Boro fields," he told the FE over phone.
He said most of his fellow farmers incurred Tk 5,000-Tk 7,000 losses at a bigha by producing potato this year.
Potato of different varieties has been selling at Tk 4.0 (granola) to Tk 8.0 (desi, diamond) at the farm-level against the production costs of Tk 6.5-Tk 11, said TM Rashed Khan, assistant director at the state-run Department of Agricultural Marketing.
He said that the department's ongoing field reports show the current market price of potato is a five-year low as such a steepest fall was recorded in 2013.
He said potato farmers were incurring 35 to 50 per cent losses based on area and varieties.
A total of 0.46 million hectares of land have been brought under potato farming this season, targeting the production 10 million tonnes, according to the Department of Agriculture Extension.
The extension data showed some three-fourth of harvest was completed by March 22.
Md Mosharaf Hossain, chairman of the Bangladesh Cold Storage Association, told the FE that more than 2.5 million tonnes of potato remained unsold at 396 cold store houses in the country.
He said many traders and farmers didn't even come to release their produce, which hit storage owners hard.
He said many of the cold storage owners were unable to pay back credit and project installments of loans after the sluggish demand for potato.
He urged the government to include potato into its social safety-net programmes, which could help boost demand for the carbohydrate-rich crop.
Tomato growers also received a blow this season as prices declined to Tk 2.0 to Tk 3.0 a kg at the farm level between February and March (first week) against the production cost of Tk 10 a kg.
Bogra, Rajshahi, Chapai-Nawabganj, Jamalpur, and Comilla are some leading tomato-growing districts where the produce is still selling at Tk 5.0-Tk 7.0 a kg at the farmers' end, according to the marketing department.
Its data showed tomato growers saw 60-70 per cent losses this season in the major districts.
However, tomato was traded at Tk 20-Tk 30 a kg in Dhaka and other big cities in the last one month, according to the state-controlled Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
"We work hard in fields but the profits are taken away by others. As we can't preserve tomatoes for more than four days, we have to sell those at the best available price," Md Kaiser Ali, a farmer at Godagari of Rajshahi, said.
He cultivated tomato at one bigha against an investment of Tk 7,550 and got 19 maunds (40 kg per maund) of tomato.
"I sold it at only Tk 2,250 as a maund was traded at Tk 120 in the first week of March," he said.
The extension office said that the production of tomato is expected to reach 85,000 tonnes at 14,500 hectares of land this year.
Golam Rahman, president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said low prices at the farm level would hardly benefit consumers.
He said tomato ketchup was selling at Tk 260 a kilogramme by leading processors when prices of its raw materials (tomato) dropped to Tk 2.0 a kg.
He said 50 grammes of potato French fry were selling at Tk 80-Tk 100 at fast-food chains when farmers are selling a kg of the crop only at Tk 8.0 a kg.
Professor Golam Hafiz Kennedy, vice-president of the Bangladesh Agri Economists Association, told the FE that the absence of storage facility, government initiative on fixing minimum prices and considerable post-harvest losses are causing sufferings to the farmers.
He said that industries are reaping the benefits but both farmers and consumers are not benefitting from the decline in prices.
A 25-40 per cent post-harvest loss is also a major reason behind the farmers' woes, he said.
"Cold storage facility should be made available to the farmers in each union, which might help them sell crops at suitable time and minimise the post-harvest loss," he added.
