Farmers unhappy over low potato, pea prices

Manmeet Singh Gill

Amritsar, December 12

The potato and pea cultivators are unhappy over the low prices of the two vegetables. The cultivators said they would not be able to recover their input costs this season. The farmers are forced to sell their potato crop at Rs 5 per kg as the market price ranges from

Rs 500 to Rs 560 per quintal.

Similarly, the pea crop is fetching a price of Rs 12 per kg in local vegetable markets. Sarwan Singh, a farmer said, “The harvesting cost of pea crop is nearly Rs six per kg, which includes plucking and buying ‘bardana’ (gunny bags).” He said the cost of pea seeds alone was nearly Rs 14,000 per acre.

Harman Singh Handa, a potato grower said, “At present, per acre yield of potato is nearly 75 quintals. The potato crop is selling at Rs 500 per quintal and a farmer is getting Rs 37,500 per acre. The cost of cultivation of the potato crop is around Rs 55,000 to Rs 60,000 per acre.”

Handa said the harvesting of potato from fields had just started and farmers feared that the prices would go down further. The farmers said there was a huge difference between the price they were selling potatoes and peas at and the price at which consumers were buying these vegetables for their kitchen. At present, the retail price of potatoes in local markets was Rs 20 per kg and peas Rs 30 per kg.

The farmers demanded that fixing minimum support price (MSP) for vegetable crops was the only solution to the problem as it would help them earn their livelihood.

A large number of farmers cultivate a third crop, usually potato and peas after harvesting of paddy to supplement their income. Though the sowing of wheat is delayed, which reduces it yield, farmers end up earing more money than they could make from the two rotational crops.

However, most of them said cultivating potatoes or peas was a bad decision this year.