Early varieties of potatoes bring them good profit

Traders unloading newly harvested potatoes at Mahasthangarh wholesale market in Bogra. The farmers in the district earned a good profit this year by selling early varieties of potatoes.Photo: STAR

Luck has smiled on a section of farmers in the district as they are making good profits by selling early varieties of potatoes.
Growers said they were happy with bumper yield of potato and its encouraging rates. This will help recoup the losses they had incurred in the last season, they said.
During a recent visit, this correspondent found one kilogram of new potato being sold at Tk 40 to 35 at Mahastangarh, the largest wholesale vegetable market, in Shibganj upazila.
Trader Azizur Rahman, who brought five maunds of potato in the market, said he got Tk 8,000 by selling per maund at Tk 1600.
Farmers are getting around Tk 40,000 by selling 25 maunds of potato cultivated on each bigha of land, he said.
Md Mofazzol Hossain, resident of Shakharia village in Sadar upazila, who cultivated potato on three bighas of land, said he even sold potato at Tk 100 a kg.
Another grower Aminul Islam said he could get more potato from each bigha of land if he had got hybrid seeds, fertiliser and proper counseling from the authorities timely.
Shibganj upazila agriculture officer Shafiqul Islam said they tried to visit the farmers and advised them on agricultural productions though they had manifold problems, including shortage of manpower.
About 10,958 hectares of land have been brought under potato cultivation with a production target of 2, 04,926 metric tonnes this year, said Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources.