Call to include potato in safety net schemes

Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA) yesterday urged the government to include potatoes with rice for distribution under its social safety net scheme, to help them sell the stored potatoes.
The country produced nearly one crore tonnes of potato last season. The 347 cold stores in the country have preserved 36 lakh tonnes of the potatoes.
"The price of different vegetables has been high in the market since the beginning of this year. But the sale of potatoes is low due to a slump in its demand. So farmers are not taking out their potatoes from the cold storages,” said Md Jasim Uddin, chairman of BCSA, in a statement.
The cold stores have around 22 lakh tonnes of unsold potatoes till now, he added.
The BCSA chairman said, “The government should take immediate steps to introduce the system through relief, rationing, vulnerable group development, vulnerable group feeding, and open market sale schemes, to save the people directly or indirectly involved in potato cultivation.”
He said the sector is burdened with bank interest, rising costs of production, electricity, transport and preservation, but they are not getting fair prices.
"This can hamper the production of potatoes next season," he added.