Potato farmers in North Dinajpur face cold storage unit crisis

Potato cultivators in north Dinajpur district are facing a crisis to preserve their crops due to absence of adequate number of cold storages in the district. Having found no space to preserve they are being compelled to sell their crops in the market at lower prices. A section of big merchants are availing this oppotunity. After purchasing the crops from farmers they are allegedly preserving potatoes in some cold storages in Bihar.

It was reported that two cold storages out of total four in the districts remained closed for years. Now only two cold storages one at Srekrishnapur in Islampur and another at Panishal village in Raiganj are functional. Thousands of potato farmers this year failed to preserve their crops in cold storages. So altercations between farmers and cold storage authorities are happening on a regular basis. In order to prevent any untoward incident adequate number of police have been deployed on the premises of the cold storages.