peasants from Boyaca take to the highways to give away or sell their product at very low costs to prevent them from rotting.
Denouncing the abandonment of the national government, the potato-producing farmers of Boyacá have gone, for several days, to the roads surrounding the municipality of Ventaquemada, Boyacá, to sell their production of the last six months at very low prices, almost free.
Despite the economic promises made by the government to potato growers to support their basic needs in the midst of the health crisis generated by the covid-19 pandemic, the farmers say that the aid never reached their hands.
“I had to go out to sell the potato here on the side of the road because the merchants do not buy it from us, the inputs are very expensive,” explained Albeiro Castro, a Boyacense grower to Blu radio, who added that they also do it to prevent the potato rot in your crops.
This situation occurs almost at the same time as the launch, led by Juan Camilo Restrepo, Vice Minister of Development, of the project ‘La papa, commitment por Colombia’, which seeks to meet the needs of paper farmers who, with the creation of this initiative, evidence that it is not a new problem.
Restrepo’s commitment is to allocate $ 30 billion to benefit some 3,000 small paper producers for November and December, that is, those paper farmers with land smaller than three hectares in size. It is estimated, according to figures from the Ministry of Development, that in Colombia around 90% of the 100,000 potato producers are small.
Restrepo’s figure would be missing zeros according to the farmers who explained that those $ 30 billion would be equivalent to an aid of $ 5,000 per package, a much lower figure than what they sell the product on the roads.
“It is very cheap and there is no trade for potatoes, we are selling only $ 15,000 or $ 20,000 the ‘lump’ of potato,” said Castro.
Before the pandemic, explains the grower John Aldo León, in statements to the KienyKe portal, a package of potato was sold for $ 150,000 or $ 200,000, a figure that does not come close to the $ 5,000 that the government offers with ‘La papa, commitment por Colombia’ .
In addition to the poor payment obtained by the paper growers for their products, it has been added that the health crisis has made wholesale buyers discard the idea of acquiring the tuber, which generated an extra cost that the farmers cannot support and does not generate profitability.
“Yes, there is a lot of potatoes, but there is no profitability due to the low prices. Liquids and fertilizer for crops are quite expensive compared to the value at which it is currently being sold, let’s say a pound of potato, which is for 400 and even 300 pesos, ”explained León.
For his part, Hugo Rosas, deputy and agrarian and environmental leader of Boyacá, expressed his disagreement, and wrote through his social networks, “this is the sad reality to which our peasants are subjected, low prices to sell, prices high to produce; not enough money to take their products to market places or supply centers. Today hundreds of thousands of families that depended on producing potatoes are bankrupt due to low prices ”.
According to figures from Fedepapa, to the aforementioned problem, it is added that, according to calculations by the entity, the monthly losses for potato producers are around $ 100 billion, that is, from a monthly production of 220,000 tons of potatoes, they would be losing about $ 450,000 for each ton.
Although the information has not been confirmed, it is presumed that the papicultural sector is planning to express its disagreement through mobilizations on November 13.
