Bumper crop continues to crush potato prices in Uttar Pradesh

A bumper crop and rise in storage costs coupled with the suspension of futures trading, continue to crush potato prices in the country. Farmers across Uttar Pradesh’s potato belt, stretching from Kanpur to Agra, who were earlier euphoric about the record potato crop, are finding it difficult to even recover the cost of production.

Many farmers took loans to cultivate potato during the year. While farmers are paying the price of stocking the crop at cold storage facilitiers, the price of the staple has touched a record low of Rs 300 to Rs 350 per quintal at all major wholesale markets.

The potato crop during 2008 in Uttar Pradesh is estimated to be around 14 million tonne against an average of 10 million tonne, while 25 million tonne is estimated from across India.