Punjab: Farmers in the Doaba region are worried due to excess stock and overproduction of potatoes.

Punjab: The carryover stock of potatoes from last year and the expectation of higher production in Punjab, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Odisha have already created major concerns for potato farmers in the Doaba region. Harvesting of early-maturing varieties, especially Kufri Pukhraj, has begun, and farmers are getting only Rs 6-7 per kg at the farm gate. Jang Bahadur Sangha, one of the largest potato growers in the area, said, “The only good thing so far is that the weather is good. There has been no fog, mist, rain, or frost so far. If the weather remains clear for the next 15 days as well, there will be no disease, and we can expect a bumper crop.”
However, Sangha is not very optimistic about the market conditions this year. He said, “Last year, we had a very good crop. That stock has not yet been cleared in many places. Potato cultivation has also increased significantly in other states. In these circumstances, we cannot expect a good price for our crop because the demand-supply ratio is fine for consumers (and politicians), but not for farmers.” Jaswinder Sangha, representing the Jalandhar Potato Growers Association, said, “For the 60-day maturing variety, we are getting only Rs 6-7 per kg, which means we are only breaking even on the expenses incurred so far. We will only be able to recover our costs. We will not get any profit margin this time. Farmers have still not been able to completely sell last year’s potato stock, and therefore the market for fresh potatoes is sluggish. Now, we can only hope that the weather remains clear for the next fortnight so that we can get a good crop of Kufri Chandramukhi, Kufri Jyoti, and Diamond varieties as well.”
Potato farmers in Jalandhar are also experimenting extensively with tissue culture techniques to propagate varieties obtained from the Central Potato Research Institute in Kufri. Jaswinder Sangha said, “Many farmers have their own private tissue culture labs where they are producing millions of plants from a single plant brought from Kufri. Government labs and the tissue culture lab at Thapar University have also been a great support. Aeroponic techniques have also been adopted by many in the last few years.” Another potato farmer from Jalandhar, Gurraj S Nijjar, who primarily grows potato seeds, expressed concern over the disrupted market cycle after the bumper potato crop last year. He said, “We are currently getting only Rs 300-400 for a 50 kg packet of new seeds, which is quite low. Our recent supply of Malini, Pukhraj, and Jyoti variety seeds from Punjab to West Bengal was severely affected this time due to a shortage of laborers after the Bihar elections. Loading was badly impacted. By the time our consignment reached its destination, it had rained, and some of the supply was spoiled. So, we also incurred losses.”