West Bengal potato growers fear they will face severe losses as the price of good quality seeds have skyrocketed, while the minimum support price (MSP) fixed has remained relatively low.
West Bengal is one of the major potato-growing states of India. The farmers in the state mainly grow Jyoti, Chandramukhi and hybrid varieties like Super S1, Super 6 and Pokhraj.
The retail price of potatoes in Kolkata was Rs 10 per kg (€0.11) for Jyoti, the most common variety grown and procured, and Rs 15-16 per kg (€0.17-18) for Chandramukhi. In February this year, the state government fixed the MSP of potatoes (Jyoti variety) at Rs 300 for a bag (50 kg), which translated to Rs 6 per kg. This was done to prevent the distress sale of produce like last year when initially farmers didn’t get a good price for the potatoes and then suddenly prices skyrocketed to Rs 1,400-1,500 per bag.
But downtoearth.org.in reports that potato cultivators are unsure how they are going to even cover the production cost at this selling price.
