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date=2014-02-12&nid=83539

Farmers dump potato into river in Munshiganj
Staf f Correspondent
Growers in Munshiganj on Tuesday staged demonstration and dumped potato into the river Dhaleswari and on
the road in protest at low price of their produce.
Small and marginalised potato growers of the district took to the streets in the morning and held
demonstrations near the China-Moitre Bridge, demanding f air price.
A human-chain was also f ormed f rom 10:00am to 12:00 noon near the bridge under the banner of Munshiganj
Krishak Kolyan Samiti.
More than 300 f armers coming f rom dif f erent villages of the district joined the programme.
Af ter the human-chain, the f armers dumped 20 sacks of potato into the river and on the road.
The protesting f armers told New Age that the production cost of per kilogram of potato was over Tk 12 but
they were now selling per kilogram of potato at Tk 5-6.
They said the low price of potato caused f rustration among them.
We have no alternative but to sell the potato at low prices as we need money. Incurring huge loss in potato
cultivation, it would be tough f or us to cultivate the next crops, f armer Habibur Rahman, said urging the
government to take appropriate steps f or ensuring f air price of their potato.
The f armers usually cultivate early variety of potato in October and early November in the hope of getting a
good price when it would hit the market in late December, January and February.
Instead, this season the f armers incurred huge loss as the f requent hartal and blockade programmes
hampered smooth transportation of the potato to the city markets in the month December and January.
Most of the f armers avoided harvesting potato during the hartal and blockade programmes that caused huge
stock of potatoes.
The f armers in northern districts including Nilphamari, Thakurgon and Lalmonirhat were even seen selling per
kilogram of potato at Tk 2 to Tk 5 some couple of weeks ago, which was supposed to sell at Tk 20-30.
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