A POTATO BLIGHT IN BENGAL

Ashish Ghosh, a 48-year-old farmer from Paschim Medinipur district, had spent Rs 50,000 on his 2.5 bighas to cultivate potatoes.

- By Arkamoy Datta Majumdar

That small plot, about 1.55 acres, was a rented one. The money too was borrowed, almost all of a Rs 60,000 loan. A bountiful harvest would defray the damages and fetch returns. Or so he thought. But on-andoff restrictions on the sale of the crop to neighbouring states like Odisha and Bihar upset all his plans. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had imposed the ban twice-from July 2024 to mid-August and again from mid-October to January 24-to calm soaring potato prices in Kolkata. By the time the last ban was lifted, the decision had immiserated many thousands of farmers like Ghosh. That too, ironically, while cold storage units in Bengal are crammed full with last year's unsold potatoes, causing prices of millions of sacks of fresh produce to plummet.