Koraput: Potato farmers have resorted to distress sale of tuber due to absence of proper marketing facilities and lack of adequate numbers of cold storages in this district, sources said Tuesday. It is expected that the total potato production will be close to 45,000MT after harvest is completed this year. Farmers are now at a loss regarding the storing and preservation of the potatoes. With no option available, they are now selling off the produce at throwaway prices and it is the traders who are benefitting.
Sources said that the climate and soil of Koraput district are conducive to potato cultivation. It is the main source of income for the majority of farmers in this district. Potato cultivation is mostly done in the kharif season. Farmers are now disposing of close to 100 quintals of potato grown in the months of June and July.
Sources pointed out that for the huge amount of potato cultivation only four cold storage facilities are available. Two of these with a capacity of 5,000 tonne each are in Jeypore sub-division while two others of the same dimension are in Koraput subdivision. However, all four are being used to store various types of vegetables. Other than these four storage facilities, one more with a capacity of 10 tonne is available at Kunduli. The Regulated Market Commission (RMC) has three cold storages with each having a capacity of 30 tonne. However, two of these are non-functional.
Amid this backdrop, it should be stated here that more than 7,500 farmers in the district have gone for potato cultivation. With no storage facility available after harvest, they have no option but to sell off the produce as the traders are offering them ‘cash on delivery’. The farmers are selling potatoes at Rs 12 to Rs 17 per kilogram, said Anand Kumar Mallick, coordinator of ‘Dangarrani Farms’. Traders from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh are fleecing the farmers by paying them less, he alleged. Tuber has been cultivated on 1,060 hectare of farmland in Nandapur block, 940 hectare in Semiliguda block, 760 hectare in Lamtaput block, 440 hectare in Dashmantpur block, 400 hectare in Koraput block, 800 hectare in Pottangi block, 100 hectare in Lakshmipur block and 150 hectare in Jeypore sub-division. When contacted over the lack of cold storage facilities, Sudam Biswal, deputy director of the District Horticulture department rebuffed the allegations. He said that cold storages at Jeypore and Koraput still has space to store 20,000 tonne of tuber. He added that farmers have been asked not to sell the tuber at such low rates when the current market price of potatoes is Rs 20 to Rs 25 per kilogram.