The Mamata Banerjee government will procure 10 lakh tonnes of potatoes from farmers through cold storages so that they don’t go for distress selling in a year that experts say is likely to witness a bumper harvest.

Sources said the government’s move is significant as it attempts to woo nearly 15 lakh potato farmers across Bengal before the forthcoming panchayat polls amid fears that a large number of them may be forced to sell the produce at lower prices.

“The harvesting of potatoes has already started and a rough calculation by the agriculture department is that the state is likely to produce 140 lakh tonnes of the crop this year. The projected production is around 40 per cent more than the regular yield in Bengal. The government will take preventive measures to protect farmers from distress sales. The potato procurement is likely to be started from the second week of this month,” said a senior government official.

Around 90 lakh tonnes of potatoes are harvested in Bengal annually, and districts like Hooghly, East Burdwan, Bankura, and Murshidabad in south Bengal and North Dinajpur, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri in north Bengal are considered prime producers.

“The state cabinet will meet on Monday and sanction the potato procurement plan. We have already communicated with cold-storage owners in all potato-producing districts and the purchases will start within one or two days,” he added.

The government has planned to purchase potatoes from farmers at Rs 6.5 a kilo after calculating costs that include a small buffer of profit for them. Presently, farmers are selling their produce at Rs 4.5- 5 a kilo. A farmer can sell a maximum of 25 quintals of potatoes to the cold storages.

“Selling potatoes at Rs 4.5 or Rs 5 a kilo is a complete loss for the farmers as it can’t even meet their cost of production. If it continues, the affected farmers will go against the ruling establishment and we have to face the consequences in the panchayat polls.

The government has taken the right decision at the right time,” said a senior Trinamul Congress leader in Hooghly. The government had taken an initiative to procure potatoes before the Assembly polls in 2021 and it was reported to be successful.

Sources have said a farmer spends nearly Rs 24,000 to produce potatoes per one bigha of land and presently gets only Rs 17,000 by selling the crop.

Laloo Mukherjee, the chairman of the Paschim Banga Pragatishil Aloo Byabosayee Samity, said the decision to procure potatoes by the government would help thousands of farmers who otherwise would sell their produce at lower rates.

“Big farmers have no problem as they can hold back their yield for a long time in order to get better prices. Marginal farmers always sell their produce at lower rates as they can’t store their produce for long. The decision will certainly help those communities,” said Mukherjee.

The purchased potatoes will be stored by cold storage owners who can sell out the crop in phases at a particular rate with assent from the government.

“If a situation comes where the market price falls under the rate they purchased potatoes from farmers, we can directly buy the crop. We can distribute the potatoes to schools for mid-day meals or sell those from the agri-marketing department-run Sufal Bangla stalls at a more considerable rate,” said a state government official.