Sri Lankan Potato Growers Say Government Procurement Came Too Late, Leaving Yala Harvest Sold Below Cost

Potato growers in Sri Lanka’s Badulla District have criticised the government’s decision to buy local potatoes at Rs 220/kg, saying the intervention was announced after the Yala season’s harvest had already been marketed at Rs 160–180/kg — below cultivation costs.

Potato growers in Sri Lanka’s Badulla District have criticised the government’s decision to purchase locally grown potatoes at Rs 220/kg (around US$0.66/kg), saying the intervention came after the Yala harvesting season had ended, the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) reports.

Growers in Welimada, Uva Paranagama, Bandarawela and Diyatalawa reported selling their harvests below cultivation costs despite reducing planting areas to limit financial losses. Farmers said they struggled to secure buyers at Rs 160–180/kg (around US$0.48–0.54/kg) at the Keppetipola Special Economic Centre, prompting calls for government procurement through the state-run retailer Lanka Sathosa.

The government announced that Lanka Sathosa would begin purchasing potatoes at Rs 220/kg from 29 October. However, growers said most of their harvests had already been marketed by then — rendering the guaranteed price largely symbolic for the current season.

Imports undercut local produce. Potato grower U.H.K. Nandapala, from Wakkadahinna in Keppetipola, said local potatoes flood the market just as they are harvested, and that imported potatoes, sold at lower prices, push down demand and prices for the local crop. R.M. Rohana Ramanayake, convener of the Vegetable Farmers’ Council under the National Farmers’ Conference, said “reckless potato imports are destroying local potato farming” and pointed to rising cultivation costs as a compounding pressure; he said the last government procurement scheme to be implemented successfully was in 2019, under then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Trust deficit over past procurement. Growers also raised concerns about a previous procurement round, alleging that Lanka Sathosa agreed last year to buy local potatoes at the same Rs 220/kg rate, bought a large quantity under a promise of direct bank payments, then abruptly suspended the programme — leaving many farmers without the payments they were owed and in financial distress. That history tempers expectations for the new round of state buying.

Farmers said they had raised the issue with Plantation Community Infrastructure Minister and district MP Samantha Vidyaratne, as well as with Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe, seeking intervention.

The Sri Lankan case illustrates a recurring governance problem in South Asian potato markets: price-support interventions announced at politically visible moments but timed after the commercial window has closed. For growers who cut planted area to protect themselves, the sequence is doubly punishing — they absorbed the cost of restraint and then watched the support price arrive too late to use. Unless procurement calendars are aligned with the Yala and Maha harvest rhythms, growers say, guaranteed prices will keep functioning as headlines rather than income.

The timing gap also carries a seed-security dimension. Farmers who sold below cost typically economise first on certified seed for the next season, substituting farm-saved or informal material. That choice depresses yields a year later and deepens dependence on imported table potatoes — the very competition local growers now blame for weak prices. Breaking the cycle requires not only a credible floor price but a procurement calendar published before planting, so growers can weigh the guarantee into their decisions rather than learn about it after the harvest is gone.

The growers’ allegations about last year’s suspended purchases and incomplete payments add a credibility problem to the timing problem. A support scheme that growers do not trust cannot stabilise planting decisions, whatever the announced price.

Source: The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka), by K. R. Rajamanthri.