It looked more like a commodity bartered system when a potato hoarder asked his neighbours to bring milk and take away the most popular vegetable he stored in a cold storage. The news died down without causing a furore. The incident highlighted the fact that at some point there was no taker of potatoes. It was the time when the previous year's stock had to be cleared out of cold storages for readying the facilities for storing the new season's yield.
However, hoarders and farmers had more produce stored in cold storages than they could dispose of with some profit margin. So, many of them were utterly disappointed when they found that the price of the item was low -so low that transportation and marketing would not only leave no profit but also cause them losses. Lack of demand and low price at the last moment compelled them not to get their shares released from cold storages. Cold storage owners then threw the commodity out of their facilities and cows and goats got a free meal to munch to their hearts' content.
This was the time on the eve of the new season when fresh yield was poised to make its appearance in the market. About three months have passed since then but the fortune of potato farmers shows no sign of improvement. Reports have it that farmers are deeply disappointed at the prices of the fresh yield. Once again there is a bumper harvest of potatoes but the prices at the field level are much lower than the production cost. A farmer had to spend about Tk 20 to produce a kilogram of potatoes but the same amount fetches him Tk 12-15.
Farmers are mostly at the receiving end almost all the time. The same was the case with production of rice. Crop losses in haor areas and in some northern districts last year have exposed the country's vulnerability. A raw deal to farmers is likely to come back as a boomerang ultimately. To their credit, farmers have produced as much rice as this nation requires to feed itself. They have been producing a surplus amount of potatoes. Decades back and then a few years ago, the administration had to embark on a campaign for popularising potatoes and increasing the vegetable's consumption. Potato has not turned out to be an alternative to staples.
Yet a steep slump in prices of potato could not be averted. Now the problem is with planning of potato farming. A strong recommendation was made for export of potatoes to countries where it has great demand. In fact, export began albeit on a limited scale. But export policy has to be comprehensive in order to capture market in developed countries where regulatory provisions are to be complied with at different steps -starting from cultivation and harvesting to packaging.
So far as the quality of different varieties of potatoes are concerned, a few of them will easily pass the test but unless there is a clear intention of making the export venture a success from the national point of view, this cannot make much of a headway. Private exporters will get interested only when they find the process rather simple and smooth and their export fetches them reasonable profit.
Continuous losses will make farmers to turn their back to potato cultivation. In that case, its shortage will raise the prices many times more like onion. Will this be a good prospect? Perhaps not. A sound policy on potato cultivation, its export and storage is in demand. The mess created for potato growers should be cleared fast before they get disillusioned with its cultivation.