Abysmal fall in potato rate: the bane of farmers in state: AAP

Chandigarh, March 30

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has expressed its grave concern over the constant falling rate of potato in the state which has come as a shocker for the large number of farming fraternity.

Kotkapura MLA and Punjab unit chief of Kisan Wing of the party, Kultar Singh Sandhawan, in a statement issued from Chandigarh here on Saturday, said that the trend had given sleepless nights to the teeming millions of farmers who were already over-stressed due to heavy farm loans on their heads.

He said further said that with the vertically falling potato prices in the state had come as a shot of the sledgehammer to the hassled community as it had not been getting remunerative prices for their produce, Sandhwan said.

He further said that the key reasons for the invariably fluctuating prices of potato and their abysmal fall were, besides being exposed to natural climatic conditions, the government’s anti-farmer policies which, he said, had caused a great setback to the ambitious diversification plans in farming sector.

Expressing his deep anguish over the predicament the poor farmers were subjected to face, he said that fall in the potato rate this season around was far more low than the previous years. Elaborating further, Sandhwan said that the initially the potato rate initially ranged between Rs 800-900 per quintal, which nosedived to Rs 600 per quintal (Sugar free variety) and Rs 350 per quintal (Sugar variety).

Sandhwan said that the subsequent governments in the state were solely responsible for the Himalayan botch up leaving the farmers with no options but to sell their produce at a much low price. He demanded that the Captain Amarinder Singh Government should immediately come to the farmers rescue and bail them out the crisis by initiating measures. The government should immediately fix minimum support price of potato, stating that the initiative would benefit both the farmers and consumers, thus putting an end to middleman ship.

He slammed the union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal for her failure to do a precious little in this regard during her 5-year-old term. He said that had she been a little too concerned about the fate of the farmers who were fighting odds for survival, the scenario would have been different. He lamented that she could not get a single unit of food processing unit set up in the state.

Sandhwan that the state government should address the issue by initiating measures to end the stress the potato growers were undergoing. The state government should ask MARFED and other agencies to stabilize the fluctuating prices of potato thereby offering a breather to beleaguered community.

The state government in tandem with union government may mull over exporting of potato to other countries of the world by allowing freight subsidy, which would not only afford the farmers to sell their produce at the global market at better price, but also the initiative would strengthen mutual trade ties between the countries, Sandhwan said.