Odisha’s Potato Crisis Eases as West Bengal Lifts Supply Ban for a Week

The potato shortage and consequent rise in prices in India’s Odisha province has eased to some extent after the West Bengal government allowed the supply of potato to other states for a week, with the overall volume capped at 200,000 tons. To ensure a balance in stock across the home state, the North Bengal and South Bengal regions were each allowed to sell up to 100,000 tons beginning August 21.

The West Bengal government, headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, put an embargo on the inter-state supply of potatoes from West Bengal after the prices spiked in late June. West Bengal is the second largest potato-producing state in India, with an annual production of 12.5 million tons. Ms Banerjee approved the sale of potatoes to other states after a review meeting with all stakeholders, including potato traders, at the state secretariat. Her decision came in the face of traders and cold storage officials urging the government to allow the inter-state trade of potatoes to protect farmers from potential losses.

The chief minister has reportedly said in the meeting that the government is monitoring the traders closely as the current market price of around INR 40 (USD 0.48) per kg is not justified when the potatoes were purchased at INR 14 (USD 0.17) per kg from the farmers. Meanwhile, when the supply situation in Odisha worsened after a pause in supply from West Bengal for about a month, the Odisha government finalised a plan to transport potatoes from Uttar Pradesh, the largest potato-producing state in India with an annual production of over 15 million tons, by railways.

Odisha's Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra said he talked with Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw about this. It was a pivotal moment because road transport is the natural choice for transporting agricultural products within the country, with railways, despite having an expansive network, having a negligible market share. However, experts believe that for a country of India's size and population, depending entirely on the road for transporting essential food items is not safe.

The case of Odisha’s potato crisis exemplified this concern. Despite having sufficient stock of potatoes in the country, Odisha was not able to procure it as transporting potatoes from UP by road during the monsoon rains was both cost-intensive due to long distance and ran the risk of rains damaging the potatoes during transportation. Significantly, the Indian government launched an ambitious Kisan Rail (Farmers Rail) scheme in 2020 with much fanfare, promising to provide rail freight service for agricultural and dairy products.

The federal government offered a 50% subsidy on the freight charges, but after running about 2500 train trips, the scheme was dropped, citing a lack of farmers' interest and commercial viability. On the other hand, farmers and agro traders cited additional costs and damages in taking the products to the railway yards and from yards to market while trucks offered a seamless farm-to-market transport solution. The Odisha potato crisis, which became acute over nearly one month of supply disruption, saw stray potato trucks from West Bengal enter Odisha through less-travelled routes, covering longer distances and resulting in a higher price.

However, to prevent traders from taking potatoes from West Bengal to outside the state despite a government order not to do so, the West Bengal government installed CCTV cameras in all suspect places where potatoes can be procured from farmers or cold storages and along the interstate highways. When the Odisha potato crisis was making news all over the place, agriculture professionals offered their insights and advice.

Samarendu Mohanty, who was the Asia Regional Director of the International Potato Center (CIP) until February 2024, said in an article in The Times of India (TOI) that the long-term solution to Odisha's potato crisis lay in increasing local production by using quality seeds.

Samarendu Mohanty:

"Hope lies in hybrid true potato seeds (HTPS) of which just 25 grams can be planted per hectare, compared to 2,500 kg of seed tubers. Farmers can easily grow HTPS seedlings, and existing vegetable nurseries can produce and sell them. HTPS can potentially solve the state's potato seed issues."

When Mohanty shared his article on LinkedIn, he received a reply from Nripendra Jha, CEO of Technico Agri. Sciences Ltd., who endorsed his ideas. However, a newspaper report from June 2023 suggested that Odisha had a bumper crop amounting to over 600,000 tons. The report also informed that the area under potato cultivation has increased, and Odisha could well become self-sufficient in 2024.

The media coverage highlighted how a bumper crop reduced the prices to INR 5 (USD 0.060) per kg at the farmers' level as the wholesale price was INR 10 (USD 0.12) per kg. A lack of planning and adequate storage capacity was the real cause of many potatoes going to waste or being sold cheaply during the harvest season.

According to a reply by the Indian agriculture minister in Parliament on December 12 2023, there are 8653 cold storages with 39.42 million tons. Speaking at the Global Potato Conclave, Brajesh Singh, Director of ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute (ICAR-CPRI), who was a Principal Scientist at that time, said that 68% of cold storage is meant for potatoes, and out of the total production, nearly 15.75% is lost as wastage.