Good yield, fair prices bring cheer to potato growers

Potato growers in the district are happy to get good yield and fair prices of the item this season.              

Now a kg of potato is selling at Tk 9-10 in the field while the production cost was Tk 6-7, farmers said, adding that they got expected yield this year due to favourable weather and good seeds.

"I got 830 maunds (a maund=40 kg) of potato after cultivating it on eight bighas of land spending Tk 1 lakh 50 thousand this season. I have already earned Tk 2 lakh from selling 500 maunds of potato last week," said Jamal Uddin, 50, a farmer of Ambari village in Lalmonirhat Sadar.

But in last year, he lost Tk one lakh from potato farming as he had to sell it for as low as Tk 5-6. 

"Unlike last year, our potato plants didn't face late blight disease as there was not any persistent fog and cold this season. And so, we didn't have to spend huge amount of money for buying pesticides," said Nazrul Islam, 48, at Mahendranagar village in Lalmonirhat Sadar.

Sirazul Islam, a potato trader in Lalmonirhat town, said he buys potato from the growers in the fields and sends it to different areas of the country after processing.

"Potato growers are happy to get fair prices. We are also earning good profit from selling it across the country," he said.

Bakul Maih, 40, a potato retailer at Goshala Bazar vegetable market in the town, said they purchase potatoes at Tk 11-12 per kg from the wholesaler and sell it between Tk 13-15 to the customer.

A total of 5,250 hectares of land were used for potato farming against the target of 4,950 hectares this year while the last year's cultivation area was 4,940 hectares of land, said sources at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Lalmonirhat.

Farmers will be encouraged to grow potato on more areas of land if fair prices can be ensured, said Safayet Hossain, deputy director of Lalmonirhat DAE.