Jumbangla Desk: In the current financial year, there is a target of potato cultivation in about four lakh 67 thousand hectares of land. But till November 21 progress in cultivation is only 23 percent. Farmers are not able to grow potatoes due to severe seed shortage across the country. The price of seed potatoes is not even double than the price set by the government. Details from the report by Kal Kantar-

There is an acute shortage of potato seeds in the country, although the government supplies only 5 percent of the required seed potatoes. The crisis has increased due to non-rational supply in various districts and open market sale of seed potatoes at farmer level.

Farmer Shamim Hossain of Kishoreganj upazila of Gaibandha said, 'I want to cultivate potatoes on 21 bigha land. A total of 6 and a half tons of seeds are required.

But I have not received the required seeds yet. You have to buy seeds at a higher price. I doubt whether I will get good seeds or not.'
Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and farmers' organizations say that although there is a demand of about 750,000 tons of potato seeds every year, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) has produced only 38,000 tons of seed potatoes in the last year.

Apart from this, 65-70 thousand tons of seed potatoes are supplied privately. Apart from this, the Department of Agricultural Extension also provides small scale. In total, the institutional supply of potato seeds in the country is only 15 percent. The remaining supply of potato seeds comes directly from farmers. But due to production and supply shortage in the current year, the price of food potato is also very high.

Farmers are selling their seed potatoes because of good price. On the other hand, the official seed potatoes have not reached the farmer level logically. That is, the areas where the production is high have not been supplied with that proportion of seed potatoes. Hence, acute shortage of seed potatoes has developed. BADC has fixed the price of seed potatoes at Tk 40-64 depending on the quality and size. However, since the government allocation is low, the business syndicate has got the opportunity to increase the price of potato seeds as they wish. In different regions of the country, seed potatoes are being sold at Tk 80-90 per kg in different quality and types.

Mahbub Hossain, a resident of Rajarhat upazila of Kurigram, said, 'I have been buying potato seeds from BADC and cultivating them for five years. I want to plant potatoes in 45th century land. But I got only 200 kg of seeds from BADC. Potatoes can be cultivated in only 25th century land with this seed. I am not getting good seeds even with extra price. If the government does not increase the allocation of seed potatoes, the farmers will be in trouble in the future.

According to BADC data, potato cultivation area has increased in Rangpur, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha and Kurigram districts. But government allocation of seeds has been reduced in these districts. In the current season, the potential demand of potato seeds in the five districts of the region was determined to be one lakh 67 thousand tons.

There government allocation is only two thousand 797 tons. Satyendranath Roy, dealer of BADC in Kishoreganj Upazila of Gaibandha, told Kal Kantha, 'I have been allocated only three thousand tonnes of potato seeds in this potato production year. My needs are a few times more. Farmers keep coming. We are struggling to sell seeds. Although there is demand, we are not getting the seeds.'

Experts say that the annual demand of potatoes in the country is 75-80 lakh tons. But the primary production in the country is one crore 13 lakh tons. However, if the post-harvest damage and calculation method of these potatoes is done correctly, the actual production will not be more than 7 million tons. Last season, the farmer was able to make an additional profit of up to Tk 15-20 per kg of potato. For this reason, they are interested in cultivating potatoes on a large scale this season. Apart from this, the trend of early planting of potatoes is also high this time. For this, there is a shortage of seeds.

BADC Rangpur Region Deputy Director (Seed Marketing) said. Masud Sultan said, 'allocation of apple seeds has been determined in the Dhaka office. We only implement instructions. We applied for 3,600 tons of seeds but received much less. Now the price of potatoes is good. So everyone now wants to grow potatoes. So the instability in the market is more than the potato crisis.