Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh

It has become a problem of plenty with potatoes. While the price of green vegetables soars, there are no takers for the potatoes. Especially those that were kept in cold storage in anticipation of better market price.

The old potatoes are going at as little as Rs 2 to Rs 3 a kilogramme. Potatoes languish and rot in the cold storage as neither the traders nor farmers are interested in them any more as a new crop of potatoes flood the markets. Last year’s bumper crop and the influx of fresh produce has left the price of spud at rock bottom. All those farmers and traders who had hoarded the potatoes hoping they would get a good price at the end of the season, are in trouble.

In Bhogaitapur in Kannauj, the potato belt of Uttar Pradesh, potatoes are strewn on the ground. The last date to clear out the cold storage is already past on November 30, but the potatoes are still lying there. Besides Kannauj district, Agra, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Eta, Itawa, Farrukhabad and Barabanki grow potatoes extensively.

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“Some big farmers and traders had not taken out the potatoes in the hope of getting a better price for them,” Pawan Samvedi, cold storage owner at Jalalpur Panwara village, told Gaon Connection. “But the rates have plummeted. A packet of potatoes (40 to 50 kgs) is selling at hundred to two hundred rupees,” Samvedi said.

“There are huge amounts of potatoes lying unclaimed in most cold storages in the district,” Atul Dixit, who heads the Kannauj Cold Storage Association, told Gaon Connection. “There are anything up to fifteen thousand packets of potatoes in the cold storages. Those who put the potatoes in cold storage when the rate was at about twelve hundred rupees a packet, are now facing the prospect of selling them at not more than three hundred rupees a packet,” he said.

“The farmers are in considerable distress as they are getting next to nothing for their produce. And the unseasonal rains have further disrupted their income,” Dixit said.

While cold storage owners claim that nearly 10 to 15 per cent of the potatoes still remain in cold storage, government authorities say it is a lot less.

“As of November 30, there were just two to three per cent of potatoes left in cold storages. We do not have any information about the farmers who have thrown away the potatoes,” Manoj Kumar Chaturvedi, horticulture officer, Kannauj district, told Gaon Connection.

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According to the horticulture department in Kannauj, there are 142 cold storages in the district where 1,229,088 metric tonnes of potatoes were stored. As of November 22, about 1,173,780 metric tonnes of potatoes were taken out.

According to the third advance estimate announced on October 29, 2021, by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, for the year 2020-21, it is estimated that there will be an yield of 54.2 million tonnes of potatoes which is 5.6 million tonnes more than the yield in 2019-20. 

“When the new potatoes are selling at seven hundred to eight hundred rupees a quintal in the mandis, who will buy the old potatoes? A sack of fifty kilos is selling at hundred and fifty to two hundred rupees. Only those who make chaat and samosas are buying small quantities of those,” Rahul Gupta, potato trader from Puranpur mandi in Pilibhit district, told Gaon Connection.

Nearly 600-800 sacks of potatoes arrive at the Puranpur mandi every day, said Gupta.

According to Atul Dixit, who heads the cold storage association in Kannauj, the smaller potatoes are used as seed while the bigger ones are sent to the mandis and even to other states. The big potatoes, especially those grown in Agra and Firozabad are sent to the south of India where there is a demand for them. “But if the cold storages are not cleared out soon, there will be a problem with the next lot of potatoes that need to be stored,” Dixit warned.

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Amitabh Gupta, another cold storage owner from Kannauj, is at a loss wondering what he is going to do with the potatoes that still remain in his storage. “Last year the deadline to clear the storage was October 31, but this year the deadline was extended till November 30. The farmers were asked to take the potatoes away, but because of the low prices and a hope that the prices will rise, they have not done so yet,” Gupta said.

RK Tomar, Director, Horticulture and Food Processing Department, Uttar Pradesh, in a letter to all horticulture department had written that because of the torrential rains between October 17 and October 19, the sowing of the potato crop was delayed. There was a record storage of potatoes last year and therefore the clearing of the potatoes from the storage was extended till November 30.

Many private cold storages have begun throwing out the old potatoes that can be seen lying around outside on the side of roads. While stray cattle feed on some of them, the rest of the potatoes begin to rot spreading a stench and causing inconvenience to passers by. It might also cause disease.  Usually, in such situations, the discarded potatoes are buried under the ground.

Read the story in Hindi.