Kendrapara: Distress sale of potato has hit the farmers hard in this district due to lack of storage facilities or food processing units in the district, a report said.
Memory is still fresh when potato was selling Rs 40 a kg two months back but gone are those days as farmers now sell the staple to traders at Rs 3 a kg.
Farmers in the district now feel entrapped by undertaking potato cultivation as they have been forced to sell the tuber at throwaway prices to the traders due to lack of storage facilities or any government owned mandis to sell their stock.
Sensing better returns, farmers undertook potato cultivation but there are hardly any takers leading to distress sale.
A potato farmer Bidhu Bhushan Mohapatra of Palei village under Derabish block said that this year he has spent around Rs 1 lakh on potato cultivation on his four acre of land. He has reaped a good harvest but they have been caught on the wrong foot when it comes to sell their produce.
He alleged that a kg of potato sells at Rs 6 a kg in the market but the traders are only giving Rs 300 per quintal of their produce. They are forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices due to lack of any storage facilities in the district. He has estimated that he will suffer a loss of Rs 40,000 from the cultivation.
A farmer Kalpataru Samantaray of Pattamundai said many residents living outside of the state had returned to the district due to spread of Covid-19 disease in the country.
The demand for potato was then rising following which the migrants and the local farmers cultivated the tuber on 30,000 hectare of land. Their hard work bore fruits but they failed to store their produce due to lack of any cold storage in the district.
Moreover, they also failed to sell their produce to the government due to absence of any government owned mandis. With the tuber rotting in their houses, traders started flocking to them and forced them to sell their produce at throwaway prices.
He said that the potato mission of the state government could be a success if the latter takes care to open cold storages in the district to store their crops.
A young entrepreneur Ratanlal Samal said farmers are resorting to distress sale during harvest of potato and tomatoes in the district. However, this could be done away with if the state government promotes establishment of food processing units like tomato sauce and potato chips manufacuturing units.
He said people interested for establishment of these units are approaching various banks and the District Industries Centre (DIC) for loans and approvals. However, these industries are yet to take shape in the district due to lack of coordination between various banks and DIC authorities, he lamented.
Farmer leader Gayadhar Dhal said that the state government launched potato mission in 2015- 2016 with an aim to make the state self-sufficient in tuber production in the state and help farmer earn profit from the cultivation and cut off the dependency of tuber on outside state .
However, the scheme implemented by the state horticulture department has been a failure due to lack of effective implementation. The state government had sanctioned Rs 20 crore under the mission in 2017-18 fiscal.
However, the CAG in its 2019 report has claimed that not a single pie has been spent for the cultivation. He added that the problem can be resolved through establishment of cold storages, food processing units and government mandis.
When contacted, Kanda Jena, assistant director of Horticulture department admitted to the claim that cold storage could resolve the problem but the district lacks any such units.
PNN