Potato farmers return to field with hope to recoup losses
Farmers nursing a recently sown potato field in Kawnia upazila of Rangpur district.Photo: STAR
A good number of farmers in Kawnia upazila under the district have started sowing early variety potato seeds after harvesting short duration aman paddy, apparently in a bid to recoup the losses they incurred last year. The Department of Agriculture (DAE) has set a target of potato cultivation on 5200 hectares of land in Kawnia upazila during the current Rabi season with a production target of 16.50 tonnes per hectare, said Kawnia Upazila Agriculture Officer AKM Ruhul Amin. The target is likely to be exceeded as farmers including a large number of sharecroppers, especially in the chars (newly emerged landmass) in river basin areas, are expected to cultivate potato on larger areas of land than the previous season. Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute and a number of NGOs have taken steps to provide quality potato seeds among the farmers to ensure its proper cultivation. The authorities concerned have taken adequate steps for ensuring smooth supply of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, technical assistance and other inputs to the potato growers at the grassroots level while commercial banks, other financial institutions and NGOs provided easy term agriculture loans for the purpose. The early variety potatoes may appear in the local markets by December-January. During this correspondent's visit to char areas, a number of farmers said they cultivated early variety of the major cash crop in more areas to recover the huge losses they had suffered in last season. Now sowing of early variety potato seeds is going on in full swing in Char Pollimary, Char Najirdoho, Char Changra, Prannath Char, Char Chatura, Char Rajib, Hasbatkhaon and Ganay Char areas. The cultivated items include local varieties of sheel bilatee, lal sheel (bograi, lal madda) and lal pakri and foreign varieties of cardinal, diament and kufri shindhury. About 30 percent cultivation has already completed, farmers said, adding that they hope to get good yield if the weather remains favourable. "This year I cultivated kufri shindhury on two bighas of land. I got profit by cultivating early variety potatoes in previous years. Last season I sold early-variety potatoes for Tk 600-700 per 84 kg bag where the variety harvested in the peak season was sold for only Tk 300," Quddus Mian, a farmer of Char Pollimary said. Momin Ali, another farmer of Char Najirdoho said soil of char area is very favourable for potato cultivation. Heavy rainfall does not make any harm on the potato field. So seeing others I started early-variety potato cultivation this season. However, several farmers of Char Chatura, including Golzar Rahman, Shamsul Islam, Rahim Mian, Poran Mohanta, Gofran Ali and Limon said they refrained from cultivating potato this season because they incurred huge losses in the last season. Farmers are now very eager to cultivate early variety potatoes like kufri shindhury, lal sheel and sheel bilatee as they sell for higher prices than that of others and have demand throughout the year, said Ruhul Amin, agriculture officer of Kawnia upazila. These varieties yield less but involve low production cost as they are less vulnerable to pest attacks and diseases and require less labour, he added.
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