Punjab faces potato glut again

Crop diversification — from conventional wheat and paddy crop to potato — hasn’t proved to be a great idea in Punjab.

A glut of potato has again hit this season — the produce can be seen dumped on roadsides — with the growers now contemplating reducing the area under its cultivation. And the wheat and paddy crop, with an assured Minimum Support Price (MSP) and no marketing hassles, are going to be their natural choices.

The efforts of the state Government agency, Markfed, to export potato to tide over the problem of glut didn’t help the growers at all. For, any prospect of exporting the produce to Pakistan was sealed with that country deciding to levy a heavy import duty of 25 per cent on potato from India. Exports through Attari land route had been viable so far, as it involved less transportation costs.

The area under potato cultivation in Punjab was around 80,000 hectares this season. And if officials and farmers are to be believed, the same is likely to come down by at least 25 per cent in the coming season.

The growers are blaming the state Government for the fiasco. “The Government should make a forecast of the area under potato cultivation for the period when the crop is sown. On the lines of the practice in some foreign countries, the Government should go in for satellite imaging and give fortnightly updates about the sown area,” said Sukhjit Bhatti, chief, Confederation of Potato Seed Farmers (POSCON).