Yield coupled with the present market price of the newly-harvested potato has made the growers delighted in the region, including its vast Barind tract, during the last couple of weeks.
Currently, the farmers are seen passing their busiest time in harvesting potatoes from lands and transporting those to the market for selling everywhere in the region.
Habibur Rahman, a farmer of Chimna village under Tanore upazila in the district, has cultivated the cash crop on four bighas of land. He's now harvesting his crop and keeping those in cold storage for selling at a convenient time.
Beginning of the season, the price of potato was Taka 70 to 80 per kilogram (Kg) during the couple of days but the retail price declined to Tk 18 to 20 per kg at present.
Rahman said most of the newly-harvested potatoes are being transported to the markets for selling as those are green and shelf-life is very less. Abul Bashar, 53, another farmer of Baya village under Paba upazila, has cultivated potatoes on around 170 bighas of land in Duary village under the same upazila.
He had cultivated the cash crop on 110 bigha of land in the same area last season and harvested around 9,000 maunds of potato and his profit was around Taka one crore after selling those. He is also very much hopeful about this year's outputs.
Kazi Rashidul Islam, another potato farmer from Mohanpur, is cultivating potatoes on 300 bighas of land this year. Besides farming, he sells potato seeds. This year, he will collect 300 tonnes of seeds. Of these, he has sowed 100 tonnes of seeds for his own scheme.
Seeing the business opportunity, Abdul Awal, a resident of Mundumala under Tanore, has started potato farming on lease basis. He has cultivated potatoes on 85 bighas of land.
Many Tanore and Godagari residents sold their one-crop fields to buyers from different areas. Now potatoes are being produced on these lands.
Meanwhile, around 39.08 lakh tonnes of potatoes are expected to be produced from 1.56 lakh hectares of land in all eight districts of the division during the current Rabi season.
According to the latest official data, the target of producing 14.60 lakh tonnes of potato has been set from 58,414 hectares of land in four districts of Rajshahi Agricultural Zone while 24.49 lakh tonnes from 97,985 hectares in four other districts of Bogura zone.
The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has set the target and adopted all sorts of measures to attain the cherished goal.
Mijanur Rahman, an operator of deep-tube-well in Krishnapur village, said the farmers are seen cultivating potatoes more instead of Boro paddy in the Barind area and the Tanore and Godagari upazilas in particular.
He identically mentioned that the farmers are interested in potato farming as it's being adjudged as a less-irrigation consuming crop than the Boro paddy.
Simultaneously, commercial potato farming has been expanded to the dried lands in large amounts during the last couple of years in the vast Barind tract as a result of promoting irrigation facilities by the Barind Multipurpose Development Authorities (BMDA).
Agriculturist Sirajul Islam said the field level officials, experts and other organisations concerned have been providing necessary instructions to the farmers to make their upcoming farming a total success.
Most of the growers' harvested better yields of potatoes in the last two to three years. Islam said processing of potato can be the best way of its proper and multipurpose use through resisting post-harvest losses.
Simultaneously, there are scopes of generating potential entrepreneurs in the field of potato diversified use, preservation and marketing.
Production of the potato was enhanced to a greater extent in the region compared to its demands. Like other parts of the country, commercial farming of the cash crop has become popular in the Rajshahi region.