West Bengal: Potato farmers commit suicide even after bumper harvest
There has been a sharp decline in the field price of potatoes in the state due to a bumper crop this year coupled with inadequate infrastructure to support small farmers to store their harvest.
In Short
- The farmer who killed himself was under a debt of Rs one lakh
- Small farmers have inadequate infrastructure to store their harvest
- Demonetisation has been another factor leading to farmers' distress
Failing to recover money after a bumper harvest, two potato farmers have committed suicide in one week in West Bengal's Burdwan district.
On Thursday night, the body of 48-year old Haripada Biswas was recovered hanging in his toilet. According to family members, Biswas was in debt after taking a loan of one lakh rupees.
This comes just a day after another farmer 37-year old Chandan Pal died by consuming pesticide in his field. Pal had reportedly taken a loan of Rs 50,000 from a private money lender keeping his land on mortgage.
There has been a sharp decline in the field price of potatoes in the state due to a bumper crop this year coupled with inadequate infrastructure to support small farmers to store their harvest. With no money to transport their produce or even rent cold storage facility, most small farmers prefer selling their produce to middlemen directly from the field. However, for a host of reasons, farmers are barely getting buyers this harvest season.
"No middleman is coming to us to buy our harvest. We have no option but to feed it to our cows and buffaloes. Neither do I have the capacity to transport the harvest to a cold storage," says Kajal Das, a small time potato farmer from Burdwan. According to Das, the minimum cost to produce one sack of potato (50 kg) is Rs 300 whereas the price he is getting from the market at the moment is anything between Rs 100-150 per sack as against Rs 450 last year. He says the recurring cost for cultivation has been on the rise every year making it difficult to sustain the cultivation.
Demonetisation has also dealt a severe blow to this cash intensive system. "Who will buy the produce? Where is the cash? Is it possible to buy it with cheques? Middlemen are saying they want to buy on credit but we can't afford to sell this way," explains Montu Das, another potato farmer from the same district.
In order to address farm distress, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that the state government will procure 28,000 tonnes directly from farmers for its mid-day meal and ICDS schemes. The government has also fixed the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the same at Rs 4.60 per kg, as against the current field price of Rs 2.5 - 3 per kg.
However, many farmers claim that the government's promise to purchase their harvest has remained unfulfilled leading to the distress. West Bengal is the second largest producer of potatoes and according to market estimates, production is likely to touch 110 lakh tonnes this year.
"As against 90 lakh tonnes last year, this year we have produced 110 lakh tonnes. We want to export our produce to not just neighbouring states but even outside India in countries like Sri Lanka," claimed Bengal agricultural marketing minister Tapan Dasgupta.
Also read:
Cash crunch in West Bengal: Fish prices plunge, potato farmers fear loss of crops
Bengal budget: Mamata govt announces relief for those adversely affected by demonetistaion