Recuperating from demonetization woes, farmers highlight that the crop which was earlier being sold at Rs 500 per quintal is now being sold at Rs 200 per quintal, making it difficult for farmers to recover the input costs.
Stuck with a glut of potato produce and plummeting prices, farmers in Doaba region of Punjab have taken to streets to dump potatoes on roads, deepening the farm crisis faced by the state which is already struggling to rescue its debt-ridden farmers.
Punjab has around 5 per cent share in India's annual potato output which is mainly grown in Doaba region consisting of Jalandhar, Nawanshahar, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur. The state also supplies potato seeds to other potato growing states, but the surplus production this year has caused a glut, leading to rock bottom prices and subsequent losses.
Recuperating from demonetization woes, farmers highlight that the crop which was earlier being sold at Rs 500 per quintal is now being sold at Rs 200 per quintal, making it difficult for farmers to recover the input costs.
"Against the input costs of Rs 35,000 on an acre of land, we are not able to recover even half of it, as the output does not exceed Rs 15,000. Why isn't the government fixing a Minimum Support Price (MSP), when the situation is deteriorating every year?" says Jalandhar-based farmer, Jaspal Singh, who cultivated potatoes on 27 acres of land and is now counting his losses.
Highlighting that farmers are left with no other option but to dispose off the crops at huge losses, Boota Singh, a farmer from Nawanshahar says, the problem had begun two months ago, when farmers had started booking spaces in cold storage facilities, but government shut its eyes, until farmers resorted to protests.
"What is the benefit of waiving off loans of farmers, when government does not intend to even help them recover their losses? If no steps are taken, the cycle of crop-losses and debt-ridden farmers committing suicides will continue. The prices have gone down as much as Rs 2 per kg. How long can we afford to keep the crop in cold storage when we have to pay hefty amounts there as well," says Singh.
Adding to the woes, cold storage owners are also reluctant is storing the crops compelling farmers to dump the crop in the peak harvesting season of February and March. "When last year's produce remains dumped in cold storage, where we do we keep the next produce? The production is surplus and there is a glut. Farmers keep waiting for prices to go up, which does not happen," said Gurinder Kang, owner of a cold storage in Jalandhar highlighting that the problem worsened due to demonetization.
While, Punjab government directed Markfed to intervene help the distressed farmers out of the crisis, the farmers rue that nothing has been done as potatoes continue to rot in fields. Farmers demanded that government must explore export opportunities of the and set up a mechanism to compensate the losses.
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