In the northern region of the country, there is now an acute crisis of seed potatoes.
Due to the high market price of potatoes, the seed potatoes are being released from the cold storages for sale.
The season of potato cultivation has already started, but the farmers of the northern districts including Rajshahi are facing shortage of seed potatoes.
For the past one week, farmers have been busy preparing lands for potato cultivation and many have already planted seeds.
Reportedly, due to seed shortage, farmers are worried about whether they would be able to plant potatoes this season in time.
In Bangladesh, every year there remained a surplus of potatoes that made it a cheaper vegetable for most people.
But this year potatoes touched as much as Tk 70 per kilogram, thanks to the monopoly of potato business syndicates who took advantage of the high food inflation of other commodities and the government’s failure to control the market.
In fact, the government is never serious about busting the syndicates including the one of potatoes.
Since allegedly the government itself is a part of these syndicates, directly or indirectly, it always neglected its duty to enforce price monitoring of essential commodities.
This year as potato prices shot up, the government fixed its price, but failed to implement it.
It is really very sad that despite the fact there has been a surplus of potato production last year, the government allowed import of potatoes, ostensibly to reduce the vegetable’s price in the market.
This is a hopeless scenario. Import of potato has indeed created an impact on its price, albeit not very significantly, but a crisis has erupted regarding the seed potatoes as, for more profits, hoarders are selling seed potatoes for consumption. Its rippling effect could be unavailability and increase of cost in potato cultivation.
According to BADC’s Divisional Seed Marketing Office, only 125 tonnes of seed potatoes have been allocated in the entire northern region.
This allocation is very insignificant compared to the demand. Many farmers feel that they cannot get low price government seeds as they are sold through government seed dealers.
The government’s relevant authorities including the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) must look into how they could solve the crisis the potato cultivators are facing in the north.
