Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and farmers are expecting an all-time record production of potato in Rangpur agriculture region during the current Rabi season, reports BSS.
Meanwhile, many potato farmers expressed happiness getting excellent market price as harvesting of the crop is nearing completion in all five districts under the region.
“The DAE has fixed a target of producing over 22.63-lakh tonnes of potato from 86,642 hectares of land for the region this season,” Deputy Director of the DAE at its regional office Agriculturist Md. Moniruzzaman told BSS.
“The farmers had finally cultivated potato on 92,675 hectares of land exceeding the fixed farming target by 6,133 hectares or 6.96 percent this time,” he said. The farmers have already harvested potatoes on 79,545 hectares of land producing over 20-lakh tonnes and they are expecting to produce around 23.35- lakh tonnes of potato after completing its harvest soon. “In the region, the farmers produced 23.20-lakh tonnes of potato by cultivating it on 93,024 hectares of land last year,” Moniruzzaman said, predicting that this year’s potato output may cross the last year’s production. Talking to BSS, President of Rangpur District Potato Growers’ Association
Alhaj Khwaja Ahmed said farmers are getting excellent potato yield with all- time high price this year. “The farmers sold each sac containing 84 kilogram of ‘Diamond’, ‘Cardinal’, ‘Raja’, ‘Granula’, and ‘Astarisk’ varieties of potato at Taka 1,200 even two weeks ago and the current price varies between Taka 1,000 and 1,050 in local markets,” Ahmed said.
He said farmers had to sell potato at rates between Taka 800 and Taka 850 last year while at rates between Taka 640 and Taka 660 per every 84-kg sac previous year in the region.
“Export of huge quantity of potato to Nepal from Rangpur Agriculture Region is one of the major reasons behind its excellent price this season,” he added.
Potato traders Hafizur Rahman at Rangpur City Market and Fazlur Rahman at Keranipara kitchen market said the retailers are selling potato at rates between Taka 18 and 28 per kg depending on varieties and qualities of the commodity.
Rangpur Chamber President Mostafa Sohrab Chowdhury Titu predicted a brighter prospect of exporting huge quantity of potato from Rangpur region and suggested to establish potato-based agro-industries and preservation facilities to ensure fair price.
Talking to BSS, potato farmers Ariful Haque Batul of Najirdigar village in Rangpur Sadar and Abdus Salam of Sibram village in Kurigram Sadar expressed happiness over the super bumper potato yield and its market price.
“I had cultivated different varieties of potato on my three acres of land and got excellent production after competing harvest last week,” Batul said, adding that he is now busy to preserve his produced potatoes in local cold storages.
Similarly, farmers Manik Mian of Darshona village and Echhahaq Ali of Kathihara village in Sadar upazila and Moazzem Hossain of Taraganj upazila in Rangpur said they have got bumper potato output and excellent price this season.
Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Muhammad Ali said different agriculture-related organisations provided quality potato seeds and technologies to farmers to make the potato farming programme a success.
