Bumper potato crop in Doaba fails to lift farmers

Potato farmers in Doaba, despite a bumper crop this season, are finding it difficult to meet their input costs.

The situation is such that the crop costs Rs 50,000 per acre, but as the produce is devalued in the market, the farmers are a disappointed lot. Besides they are struggling with labour shortage, inflation and little help from cold store owners.

Talking about their plight, potato growers Gurmeet Singh Bagpur, Manmohan Singh, Numberdar Bhupinder Singh Herian, Resham Singh, Balvir Singh, former Sarpanch Jasvir Singh said they were hopeful that the “Haru” potato crop (cultivated in April) would give them a good yield as long as the weather remained favourable, giving them good returns. They said the yield had indeed been bumper, but due to the devaluation of the crop, the growers had only been disappointed.

Farmers said that the crop costs more than Rs 50,000 per acre. Currently, 200 to 225 bags of potatoes are being harvested per acre, but due to the fall in potato prices to around Rs 200 per bag and even lower, producers had been forced to suffer huge losses.

They said the Punjab Government was also not taking any care of the potato producers.

Assistant Director, Horticulture Department, Dr Jaspal Singh, said due to the favourable weather conditions and prolonged cold weather, the yield and quality of the potato crop this time had been much better than previous years. He said the absence of blight and any other disease in the crop had also proved helpful for the bumper yield.

He said the reason for the undervalued “Haru potatoes” is the lack of cold stores, due to which the potato crop is being spoiled, adding that the crop had been undervalued due to the lack of cold stores.