Tuber turnaround

“There is an immense scope for potato cultivation in Assam, especially in the areas close to the Brahmaputra river with soft, sandy soil,” said Gobinda Moral, an agricultural scientist with the Assam Agricultural University (AAU).

“Potato cultivation is picking up in Assam,” affirmed Tapan Dutta, agricultural adviser to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. “The AAU at Jorhat has been working on developing better varieties of potatoes suitable for the typical soil conditions of the state, and farmers in some districts are doing well,” added Dutta, who was with the AAU till a couple of years ago.

In the Barpeta initiative, a private firm, Guwahati Marketing Company, has already invested a considerable sum, and has also roped in the State Bank of India to expedite loans to farmers under the Kisan Credit Card scheme. “We are buying the entire output from Barpeta’s farmers covered under the AUS initiative,” said Mohit Dhir of the GMC.

Dhir, whose company also imports potatoes into Assam and the Northeast, said the region spends Rs 500 crore-Rs 600 crore per annum on potatoes. “If more farmers are engaged in producing potatoes locally, we will not only save a lot of money but also help the farmers improve their living conditions. The customer too will get cheaper potatoes because of less expenditure in transportation,” Dhir added.

The Northeast, including Assam, imports on an average about 100 truckloads (15 tonnes per truck) of potatoes per day. “With the wholesale price hovering around Rs 450 per quintal, it is a huge outflow of funds from the region. If the Government takes an interest in potatoes, it will not only help the rural economy but also provide a solution to insurgency,” said Vinod Jain, secretary of the Guwahati Potato & Onion Merchants’ Association.

However, Government initiatives are slow to take shape. In Udalguri, bordering Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, about 9,000 hectares of land has been brought under potato cultivation between October and February, with Uddhab Chandra Deka, district agriculture development officer expecting an output of 50,000 tonnes this season. Farmers in Sonitpur, Nagaon, Morigaon and Dhubri are also taking to potatoes.

“The AAU has provided us better varieties and the farmers are happy,” said Deka. Officials in the state Agriculture Department are also expecting a bumper crop across the state with weather favouring the newly introduced varieties like Kufri Sinduri, Kufri Chandramukhi and Kufri Jyoti.