While buying potato would have burnt hole in the pockets of a consumer, it filled the coffers of farmers, especially those who harvested the commodity on a smaller scale. For the petty farmers, the potato was never as profitable as it became after the State was deprived of the commodity from neighbouring West Bengal.
For septuagenarian farmer Mohammed Qurban, higher retail prices prompted him to sell the potato in retail market rather than selling it to a middleman who makes at least 25 per cent profit per kilo without any substantial investment. “I harvested potato at least three to four times and carried the produce to Makhmandro Bazar to sell it at retail price. I sold it at
Rs 25 per kg. A middleman would not have paid more than Rs 20 per kg,” said Qurban, who lives in Murma near Makhmandro Bazar. Qurban had sowed potato in 2160 sq ft area and incurred around Rs 2,000 for growing on quintal (equivalent to 100 kg) of potato. Interestingly, an informed potato grower outwitted middlemen who usually make profit by exploiting the logistical constraints faced by a small farmer. Most of the farmers come with only as much produce as they can sell without incurring losses.
“Farmers these days know about market so they do not harvest entire crop at once. Since the prices of potato went up, farmers brought limited quantity of potato to the Pandra Bazar. We remained a mute spectator as they came, sold and went with fat pockets,” said Madan, apotato wholesaler. Incidentally, Iqbal Ali also echoed the strategy followed by Qurban. For Ali it was time to make money and turning the table on middlemen who earlier made higher profits by buying at dirt cheap and selling at inflated prices.
“The news of short supply spread like a wild fire. This is when we realized that we should not let the city based middlemen to take advantage of the situation. Given the fact that carrying potato upto Makhmandro, Brambey or Pandra was not difficult for us we decided to sell potato directly in the market,” said Ali. Incidentally, few small farmers failed to make most of the opportunity as their crops were destroyed before reaching maturity. “like other farmers we would have made higher profit but sadly our crops were destroyed in the rain. It was our bad luck,” said Soma Oraon, a farmer at Makhmandro.