Early potato varieties a boon to Dinajpur farmers
Farmers collect early variety potatoes from a field at Khamarpara village in Khansama of upazila of Dinajpur. Photo: STAR
Cultivation of early varieties of potatoes has proved a boon to Dinajpur farmers as they are getting fair price of their produce. Harvest of early varieties of potatoes has started in different upazilas of the district at the end of November and will come to an end by this month. Farmers are happy with good yield of potato and its reasonable rates, which they said, will help recoup the losses they incurred in the last Irri-Boro season. One kilogram of new potato is being sold on local markets for Tk 40 to 35 while price of the same amount of old one is around Tk 26. According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), farmers cultivated early varieties of potatoes on 30,000 hectares of land in different upazilas of the district against the targeted 35,477 hectares. “New potatoes are abundant in local markets and consumers are getting them at affordable prices,†said vegetable trader Mizanur Rahman Mizan of Dinajpur Rail Bazaar Market. Farmers, who have already harvested early varieties of potatoes, will make a good profit by selling their produce at an increased price, said Rafiqul Islam of Khansama upazila. Rafiqul cultivated potatoes on three bighas of land and got 1500kgs from each bigha. He expects to make a good profit by selling potatoes. Saiful Islam, another grower of Khansama upazila, said he may earn Tk 33,000 by selling potatoes produced on his one Bigha land. Growers said they had also made a good profit by cultivating early varieties last year. DAE officials said they have fixed 6.8 lakh tonnes potato production target from 30,000 hectares of land this year. “We hope the target will be exceeded,†said Md Anwarul Alam, deputy director of Dinajpur DAE.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments