India: Poor arrivals from Hassan, Agra push up potato prices

The supply of inferior quality potatoes to the market, both from Hassan and faraway Agra, because of a series of problems in cultivation, has been pushing the price of potato upward. In the past one week alone, the wholesale price of potato has seen a big increase.

The price rise has been attributed to crop loss due to rains, reduced sowing area, and supply of inferior quality seeds that affected the yield in the major potato-growing regions of Hassan and Chikkamagaluru.

Damaged produce

Adding to the problem is a high percentage of rejection owing to the poor quality of potatoes arriving from Agra. As much as 35% to 40% of the loads arriving here are being rejected because of damage and poor quality, market sources said.

“Potato, which was trading at ₹28 to ₹29 per kg last week, has reached ₹34. This is because there is neither volume nor quality in potato supply,” a trader said. Supplies from Karnataka are crucial for 4-5 months this time of year as the potatoes from Hassan reach the other southern States besides ensuring supply locally, he said.

In fact, there is also reduced area under cultivation. As against last year when potato was cultivated on over 12,000 hectares, the area this year is down to about 8,500 hectares. Unlike in previous years, the government did not offer subsidy on seeds or fertilizers, citing COVID-19, and this seems to have prompted some farmers to go for alternative crops such as maize and ginger. While late blight disease had been troubling farmers for some years now, this year its impact was low.

Within two weeks of sowing, rains lashed many parts of the district and farmers complained to the Horticulture Department that seeds had rotten since they do not germinate in high moisture.

H.R. Yogesh, Deputy Director of Horticulture in Hassan, told The Hindu that the seeds were rotten in about 3,000 hectares within the first few weeks of sowing due to rains. “The yield in the remaining area is quite good, about seven to eight tonnes per hectare. Farmers are getting up to ₹3,000 per quintal of potato, a good price in the recent years,” he said.

The growers said untimely rains in May and heavy rains ahead of harvest impacted the yield.

“We had sowed 10 bags of seed potatoes and the yield was about 60 bags in one acre. There are farmers who got up to 15 bags for one bag of seed potatoes. It depends on the soil. The yield was better in the soil which could withstand water for a longer period,” said Yashwanth, a grower at Nidodi village in Hassan taluk. He got around ₹2,600 per quintal of potato.

Nagaraju, another grower at Singapatna, said he had sown 16 bags of seed potatoes, but the yield was only 35 bags. “The quality of seeds was not good and many got rotten within days after sowing. Though the price I got was good, I earned less because of low yield,” he said.

Shift to other crops

Farmers in parts of Tarikere and Chikkamagaluru taluks grow potato and the total cultivated area is around 4,500 ha. Following heavy rains in the district, many shifted to other crops. The farmers who could protect their crop, particularly those in Tarikere taluk, got good harvest and a reasonable price as well.