The market price of potatoes in the forthcoming season, starting December, may reach Rs700 per quintal in March, according to agriculture economists.
The market price of potatoes in the forthcoming season, starting December, may reach Rs700 per quintal in March, according to agriculture economists.
The economists have also predicted that the price of traditional basmati will range between Rs2,500 and Rs3,400 per quintal during the October-December period this year, which is the peak harvesting season for paddy.
The forecasts were made by agriculture economists of Govind Ballabh Pant Agriculture University, led by Dr Jagdish Kumar, during their study under the national agriculture innovation project of the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR).
One of the main objectives of the price forecast is to enable farmers to select crops for which they can get a better market price, said Dr Kumar.
"Farmers should be mentally prepared for the market price before the sowing season," he said.
Along with forecasts for potato and basmati rice prices under the programme, the scientists have also predicted the market prices of other crops like mustard, ginger, tomatoes and brinjal in the hill state.
However, crops like sugarcane and wheat, where the prices are declared by the government, have been left out of the forecast list.
According to the economists, farmers will be less inclined to grow the pusa-1121 variety of paddy due to a decline in its prices and will shift to traditional basmati varieties like HBC 19 and CSR-30 in this season.
The economists also said that while prices of potatoes may be in the range of Rs425-600 per quintal in January next year, the root vegetable will fetch Rs450-700 per quintal by March.
The results of the econometric analysis also showed that the wholesale prices of fresh ginger in the Haldwani market (Kumaon region) this year will be in the range of Rs2,400- 3,000 per quintal in September, Rs2,500-3,000 per quintal in October and Rs2,400-2,800 in November.
However, traders differed with the econometric analysis on this score and said fresh ginger prices would be in the range of Rs2,150-2,500 per quintal during these periods.
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