Considering the plight of potato farmers, the Punjab government may intervene and take some steps to provide respite to the growers. According to the sources, the state government is contemplating to withdraw infrastructure tax on cold storage and godowns meant for storing potatoes. It is further considering to introduce the freight subsidy for the crop meant for export outside states.
The situation is very grim in the state for the potato growers, with the price of the fresh crop ruling around Rs 200-300 per quintal due to bumper supply. While the price of stored potatoes is less than Rs 100 per quintal, according to farmers the input cost of the seed crop (stored potato) is Rs 10 per kg and for the commercial crop it is Rs 6 per kg. Fresh crops have already started arriving in the state.
As far as old stock is concerned, the state has four to five million bags (1 bag=50 kg)of potato lying in various cold storages of the state, creating a glut-like situation here. The state contributes 60 per cent of the total stored seeds and owners had stored the seeds from last year in anticipation of selling them at a premium to farmers of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
However, the recent bumper crop has sent the prices of potato so low that farmers did not come forward to collect the seeds.
A senior official in the state excise and taxation department mentioned that they are working on the modalities and it depends on the state Cabinet to decide to withdraw infrastructure tax on cold storage and godowns. Also, senior officials in the state mentioned that the state may introduce freight subsidy to the potato growers.
Speaking to Business Stan-dard, POSCON (Confederation of Potato Seed Farmers), secretary -general, Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha said, "The impact is very large as the state is facing a glut like situation. The prices in the domestic market has crashed like anything. Further, it’s a double whammy for the farmers. They can neither afford to store their crop in cold storage, nor ferry them out of the state on their own due to high transportation costs."
He added, “Recently we met Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and requested him to withdraw infrastructure tax which is at Rs 1 per square feet of the covered area on cold storage and godowns meant for potato exports,. Also, we have requested him to introduce freight subsidy at 0.50 paise per kg in order to help the potato growers. After listening to our demands, he assured us to take positive steps."
Farmers in the state are of the view that if the government fails to provide them a freight subsidy to transport it to other states in the next few days, they would be forced to dump lakhs of tonnes of potatoes. The area under potato in Punjab is about 83,000 hectares and expecting a production of more than two million tonnes.
