Many farmers in Arambagh, Hooghly, are faced with a curious crisis — their odd-shaped potatoes are putting off buyers.

These farmers, who have grown the crop on at least 150 bighas, are now stuck with mountains of unusually shaped potatoes that resemble “ginger or clay dolls”.

“I have grown potatoes on 12 bighas, and the entire harvest is of a weird variety that I had never seen in my 45-year-old career as a farmer. No buyer wants to purchase them because they resemble clay dolls or large pieces of ginger,” said Asit Sarkar, a potato farmer from Malaypur area in Arambagh.

“All the produce is stockpiled in the field and I don’t know how I will bear this huge loss,” the 71-year-old added.

A farmer typically spends around ₹35,000 to cultivate potatoes on one bigha of land. Sarkar’s total loss therefore comes to around ₹4,00,000.

Usually, a farmer can produce 45-50 quintals of potatoes on one bigha. For someone cultivating potatoes on 10 bighas, the total production is around 500 quintals.

Many farmers in Malaypur I and II gram panchayat, such as Mintu Das and Sheikh Mukul, are facing a similar predicament. Local sources said around 180 farmers were affected, but the agriculture department is yet to arrive at an estimate.

“Even we are afraid to eat these potatoes because we don’t know if they might affect our health. We had never before in our lives seen potatoes of such strange size and shape,” Das said.

Bengal agriculture marketing minister Becharam Manna said he had no idea about the crisis. “I will certainly look into the allegations of the farmers and get details,” he said.

Several affected farmers said they had bought the potato seeds from a local trader, Aditya Dutta, who had claimed these were the high-yield Jyoti variety, sourced from Punjab.

“After harvesting these potatoes, we approached the trader and demanded compensation. He told us he had contacted the supplier of the seeds in Punjab and that the company officials would visit Hooghly soon,” said a farmer who had cultivated these potatoes on three bighas.

A senior agriculture department official in Hooghly said the authorities had so far identified around 100 bighas that had yielded the unusual potatoes and would continue the survey to assess the total impact and the number of affected farmers.

“Although this is not the department’s fault as the farmers had purchased seeds from a private trader, we have asked the trader to contact his supplier in Punjab and request compensation for the farmers — at least for the production costs,” the official said.

The office of the deputy director of agriculture in Hooghly has sent samples of the potato to the Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya to identify the cause of their strange shape and size.

“We believe the issue stems from the seeds. However, we need to determine whether the problem lies solely in their unusual size or if there is any contamination,” an agriculture department official said.

Another official said the government would procure the potatoes and sell them to agencies involved in food processing, provided there was no quality issue.

“Many companies and agencies produce potato dust or processed potato products. They can easily buy these potatoes if there’s no issue with their food value,” the official said.

“A team will visit the affected area in Arambagh on Monday to assess the total loss faced by the potato farmers.’

The farmers said they were already struggling because of low potato prices in the wholesale market. “The wholesale potato price is only ₹900 per quintal. Imagine the plight of those farmers who have produced a variety that no one wants to buy,” a potato trader said.