03 August 2022
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Growers happy with return, despite rising cultivation costs
GROWERS in Bangladesh are pleased with this year’s potato prices, which have been prompted by rising market demand, according to a farming report in the country's media outlet, The Daily Star.
While some farmers say yields were low this year, most argue the opposite, claiming output has been the same as in previous years.
Cultivation costs were higher this year but prices have been good owing to an increased demand for potatoes in local markets which growers say has been prompted by higher prices of other vegetables. Traders are buying the tuber crop for Tk 12-13 per kilogramme (kg) from growers who were forced to sell the same amount for just Tk 10-11 last year.
Even though many potatoes remained unsold last year, none are left over this time.
The cost of cultivating potatoes in each bigha of land was about Tk 24,000 last year, but has now increased to around Tk 27,000. This year, potato has been cultivated on 98,458 hectares of land in five districts of Rangpur division, namely Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Gaibandha and Rangpur.
In 2021, potato was cultivated on 97,315 hectares of land, according to sources from the local Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).
The potato production target for Rangpur region is 23.65 lakh tonnes this year. Meanwhile, potatoes were cultivated on about 5 lakh hectares of land across the country and the overall production target has been set at around 1.16 crore tonnes.
The average annual demand of potato in the country is about 60-70 lakh tonnes, DAE data showed.
Source and photo: The Daily Star
