The Bengal cabinet on Thursday approved the proposal to procure potatoes directly at ₹9.50 a kilo from farmers as a bumper crop is likely due to favourable winter.

“The state will buy a total of 12 lakh tonnes of potato directly from the farmers at ₹9.50 a kg. Each farmer will be able to sell 35 quintals of potatoes to the government. The state government wants to ensure that small and marginal farmers are not forced to go for distress sale due to heavy production,” said Pradip Mazumdar, the state panchayat minister and the adviser to chief minister Mamata Banerjee on agriculture-related affairs at Nabanna on Thursday after the cabinet meeting.

The decision, officials said, indicated that the chief minister was not ready to take chances with the incomes of potato farmers before the Assembly polls. In the past, bumper potato harvests often forced lakhs of marginal farmers to go for distress sales.

“Potato farmers hold the key to electoral success in Hooghly, East Burdwan, Birbhum and West Midnapore. No ruling party in Bengal would like to face elections with lakhs of unhappy potato farmers. The erstwhile Left Front government had also procured potatoes from farmers ahead of the polls. The Trinamool Congress-led government is no exception,” said an official.

Many in the administration believed that Trinamool had recorded a clean sweep in the 2021 Assembly polls in Hooghly and East Burdwan after it procured nearly 14 lakh tonnes of potatoes ahead of the polls.

“It was a turnaround for Trinamool in 2021 after it was wiped out from large parts of these two districts in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP had wrested at least two Lok Sabha seats in these areas in 2019. It is believed that the decision to buy potatoes at the right time gave the ruling party an edge five years ago,” said an official.

Minister Mazumdar said this would be the sixth time that the state government would procure potatoes directly from farmers.

“Whenever farmers were in trouble, the chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) stepped in and announced a support price for the produce. It is not right to say that the decision has been taken only because elections are approaching,” the minister said.

According to sources in the agriculture department, it is expected that 110-120 lakh tonnes of potatoes could be produced in the state this time. Harvesting will start from early March.

“Usually, whenever the total production of potatoes crosses 90 lakh tonnes, the price drops drastically. It had been predicted that the price of potatoes could come down to ₹5 a kilo this time, when farmers spend nearly ₹6.50 to cultivate a kilo,” said
a source.

An official explained why it was tough for most farmers to keep potatoes in cold chains and wait for prices to rise.

“Potato is a cash crop. Small farmers invest in potato farming by taking loans from local moneylenders. As they have to repay the loans, they cannot hold back their stock. They also reinvest whatever they get for farming in the Boro season. This is why the intervention of the government is important when there’s a bumper potato production,” the official said.

Mazumdar said the decision would help Bengal’s farmers as the price of potatoes was already low in states where early varieties had been harvested. Due to excellent weather throughout winter, there was bumper production in other potato-growing states like Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.