Even as the government indicators of inflation reach record low, the prices of the staple food crop, potato, paint an altogether different picture in UP. The crop which was dumped in fields to rot last year due to over-production has suddenly scaled record heights this season. The increased demand and rampant hoarding by traders has propelled the prices by over 100 per cent over last week.
The crop, which was selling at Rs 300-350 a quintal last week has doubled to Rs 700-800 a quintal at present. The increased demand from neighbouring states like Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Assam coupled with the recent administrative relaxation, allowing potato export outside the state has propelled the potato prices above Rs 10 a kg in retail market.
According to R P Katiyar, an agriculture scientist at Chandrashekhar Azad (CSA) university, the potato production in the state has also suffered significantly this year due to the discouraged farmers who shifted to other crops following a disastrous drop in prices last year. “A number of farmers have also harvested the premature crop fearing plummeting of prices during the peak season later,” he explained.
In the beginning of the season this year, the prices had nosedived to around Rs 100 a quintal, due to which the beleaguered farmers from the potato belt of Kannauj, Etawah and Farrukhabad harvested the pre-mature crop as a precautionary measure to avoid the glut during peak season.
But there is more to the price rise than this. According to wholesale traders, a number of them have stocked large amounts of crop in the cold storages and are reluctant to evacuate in the hope of making large profits. According to Kanpur wholesalers’ association president Gyanesh Mishra, the farmers prefer to sell their produce in markets of Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Bihar, where the prices are better than the local markets.
