Cold store owners may increase charge

Bharat Khanna

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 19

After facing a tough time owing to demonetisation, potato farmers are all set to face another jolt as cold store owners are likely to increase the charge of their stores by five per cent in Bathinda district.

The charge may further be increased in keeping with any hike in the power tariff.

Last year, the potato farmers faced many problems in storing their yield. They had to wait outside the cold stores with their potato bags as the owners refused to store their crop, citing labour and space constraints in their stores. The farmers also bore additional cost of transportation.

Nirmal Singh, a farmer of Rampura, said, “This year, the owners of the cold stores have formed a group. They are already refusing the farmers, who are coming to them, from storing their crop saying their stores are already booked. They are lying and befooling the farmers. I feel the farmers will destroy their crop, which is already ready. We should sell the potato bag of 50 kg at Rs 100, which is the lowest as ever. The owners of the cold stores will demand Rs 120 per bag that is not affordable for us.”

Iqbal Singh Dhillon, the owner of a cold store in Bathinda, said, “Around five per cent increase in the fare is on the cards and further increase depends on power tariff. The five per cent increase is an annual affair as the cost increases every year, including labour and other charges.”

The state horticulture department is toothless to act upon the cold stores as the Punjab government had decontrolled it. As the cold storage industry remains decontrolled, the storage costs for potato increased almost by 100 per cent last year.

Earlier, the fare of cold storages was fixed either under the Central Cold Storage Order, 1980, or the Acts enacted by the state governments. Punjab was the first state to abolish the control on tariff fixation with effect from May 10, 1994.

In 2015, the state produced around 2.26 metric tonnes of potatoes but yield witnessed a severe downfall from Rs 150 to 250 per 50 kg bag whereas the price this year is Rs 400 to Rs 500 per 50 kg bag.

In 2016, the crop damaged due to heavy rains in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam. It also increased the demand which will further increase the price of yield.

There was a growth of around 10 per cent in the number of potato farmers in Rampura sub-division that produces about 80 per cent of the potato crop in Bathinda district whereas Rampura accounts for more than 65 per cent of potato growers in the district.

Potato crop comes under diversification but survives without minimum support price (MSP). Farmers last year were getting between Rs 80-100 per bag (50 kg) of potato in comparison to Rs 400 to Rs 450 per bag last year. Similar is condition with potato seeds that witnessed a decline up to Rs 400 per quintal this year from Rs 1,000 per quintal last year.

There are 31 cold stores in the district of which 20 are in Rampura Phul sub-division. Kufri Bahar, Kufri Sandhuri, Khyati and Pukhraj are the four main varieties of potato crop that are grown in Rampura, Phul, Nathana and Goniana blocks of Bathinda district.

Hitting at the backbone of the farmers, the cold stores in Bathinda district not only charged more than double the amount but also took 50 to 75 per cent of the payment in advance from the potato farmers to keep their yield. Farmers were forced to pay around Rs 200-Rs 250 as per quintal storage cost of potato last year.