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Potato glut & price slump drive 8 farmers to commit suicide in Bengal -Phalguni Banerjee
-The Times of India

KOLKATA: A potato glut and plunging prices have triggered suicides in Bengal's Hooghly, Burdwan and Bankura districts. Hooghly alone reported six of them. Prices have crashed, one kg of the tuber selling for Rs 3 to Rs 4. With the pressure unlikely to ease in the near future, peasants face an uncertain future and are agitating.

In 2013, Bengal's farmers reaped a good harvest of 85 lakh tonnes and raked in handsome profits. But prices across the country were volatile because the crop failed in UP, largest producer of potatoes. Bengal, the second largest producer, could have stepped in and eased matters out.

But chief minister Mamata Banerjee stopped trucks from her state from ferrying potatoes to neighbouring states to stabilise prices in the deficient areas. She was wary that shipping out the crop from her state would create a scarcity in Bengal. Rates remained stable in and around Kolkata but soared past Rs 35 a kilo in states like Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the Bengal farmer reaped a profitable harvest that year.

Encouraged by that experience and dreaming of making good money, Bengal farmers sowed potato over more than 4 lakh hectares of land this time around. Production was bountiful, an impressive 1 crore-plus tonnes. The state's 435 cold storages capable of storing a maximum of 62 lakh tonnes overflowed. Sacks of potato lay out in the open exposed to the forces of nature, farmers tried to stock some at home. Soon, the rot began setting in.

The neighbouring states, wary after the bitter 2013 experience with Bengal, meanwhile stepped up potato production. Yields in Odisha, Bihar Assam, and other states improved, consequently demand for Bengal potatoes slumped.

"In 2013, the government stopped us from selling our produce outside. We were forced to cancel contracts with prospective buyers in other states. This time around, those buyers simply refused to look to Bengal to pick up consignments. They signed deals with growers and sup growers and suppliers in other states," Lalu Mukherjee, an office-bearer of the Bengal Potato Traders' Association complained.

"The cost of farming potato isn't being realized. Traders from Jharkhand, Assam, Andhra Pradesh are not contacting us anymore. Last year we could not supply them as per our contract with them, as our government banned the inter-state movement of the crop. Assam government has announced subsidy for potato farming. Punjab and UP too have bumper crop, reducing overall demand," Mukherjee said.

Saddled with large stocks of unsold potato, farmers are in big trouble. Shanti Das of Burdwan's Simlon village says he's distressed. "We take bank loans to buy seeds and other farm inputs. How do we repay these loans? I had these loans? I had to sell my produce dirt cheap, at Rs 3 a kg. The losses were huge." Das has still managed to survive despite the terrible downturn, but many others simply haven't been able to withstand the shock. They've committed suicide.

Most Bengal farmers, unlike UP and Punjab, have small, marginal holdings. Average potato farmers here own two-to-five bigha plots and they must rely either on agriculture cooperatives or local lenders for funds. The per bigha cost of potato is between Rs 18,000 to Rs 21,000.

Laxmirani Das's husband Tapan was one such tiller. This Arambagh farmer committed suicide last Sunday."My husband cultivated 2 bighas on lease basis. He had borrowed Rs 40,000 but found no buyer for his crop. His yield was only worth Rs 8,000 and he mortgaged my ornaments. Lenders knocked on our door every day. The insult was unbearable. Nobody helped us. My husband was forced to commit suicide. No one from government has come to us."

The state government, though, refuses to accept most of these peasant deaths as cases of suicide. "These deaths resulted from family feuds," Becharam Manna, state agriculture minister recently said. The refusal to acknowledge the suicides can well be attributed to political exigency. Panchayat votes are around the corner, as are elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

But the government's steadfast refusal to address the fast-building crisis has only proved counterproductive. The anger among farmers is rising and on Sunday Singur farmers held a protest outside Minister Manna's residence at Ratanpur demanding immediate government intervention.

Later Manna said: "Last year, government fixed the price of potato to arrest the price hike. But this year, we are encouraging farmers to trade with other states. But other states are not very happy with the potato quality."

The Mamata government insists it'll make arrangements to buy up unsold potato stocks. It also permitted exports, but countries like Russia have refused to buy citing quality reasons.

Meanwhile, middlemen have sensed an opportunity to cash in on the Bengal potato glut. Reports from many places say they mopped up the crop dirt cheap for Rs 3 to Rs 4 a kg, although the retail prices in Kolkata continued to hover around Rs 10 a kg. The CM's agriculture adviser Pradip Majumdar said he was conscious of the middlemen problem: "We've formed a number of farmers' clubs. These would now supply potato to big departmental stores," he said.

This assurance has come way too late, says Shanti Das."It would have made sense to sign the contract with Pepsico. They provide seeds and inputs. But the condition is we must sell at a pre-determined rate. We have thus far been avoiding companies like Pepsico, hoping to sell at higher rates. But this time around, our gamble has seriously bombed. Next season, I'll probably tie up with Pepsico."

Shyamal Dhara of Kotulpur, Bankura agreed: "Last year we had a bumper profit. This year, we borrowed money and farmed on our own. We did not get into contract with Pepsico. But for next season, we've gone with it. The queue of farmers before Pepsico office grows every day."