Samajwadi Party has said that the potato farmers will have a black Diwali this year as they are facing the worst kind of exploitation due to the sharp fall in the prices of the agriculture commodity. The Opposition party said the farmers are reluctant to draw the potato from the cold storages as far from getting some income they are clear loser due to slump in the price in the open market.
The State president of the SP Naresh Uttar said here on Sunday those potato farmers had faced similar situation earlier this year during the holi festival. He said the price of the potato in open market had crashed as there was glut in the market. He said despite the bumper potato crop the farmers could not even recover the input cost of their produce.
SP leader said that the farmers had stored the potato in cold storages and presently the prices of the commodity ranged between Rs 200 and Rs 225 per quintal resulting in huge losses to the farmers. He said with the crash in the price the farmers were reluctant to draw the potato from the cold storages. He said the cost of the potato cultivation was Rs 15,000 per bigha while the cost recovery was less than half of that amount.
There was an increase of 20 per cent in area under potato cultivation resulting in high production of close to 1.5 crore Million Tonnes. The conducive whether also helped the rise in production.
SP leader said the farmers particularly in east Uttar Pradesh have already suffered huge loss of Kharif production due to the floods and this has also resulted in cost of the next Rabi crop.
He said the imperfect whether forecast by the weather department has also added to the woes of the farmers. He said the unusual heat in the month of Kartik (October) has also affected the paddy crop.
He said the farmers of Bundelkhand region are already reeling under the adverse impact of the drought thus year due to deficient rainfall. He said instead of helping the farmers the BJP Government is giving them only assurances for the next lok Sabha election in 2019 and state assembly election in 2022. He said the power situation in the State is also grim as the peak hour power demand has gone beyond 20,000 MW while the supply was 11,000 MW.
He said the economy of the State was already devastated by the demonetisation of the high value currency notes and the introduction of the new tax regime Goods and services tax has further aggravated the situation.