Bengal farmers in potato protest

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

Potato prices are better elsewhere in India

Angry farmers in the Indian state of West Bengal have been dumping their potato crop on roads in protest against poor prices.

Farmers say they are selling at a loss because a bumper crop and lack of storage facilities has led to a dramatic fall in prices.

The West Bengal government is asking neighbouring Indian states to purchase potatoes from them.

The move comes as prices for other foods in Asia have soared.

'Pocketed by middlemen'

At a time when food prices are rising across Asia, nobody expects farmers to complain.

But that's precisely what tens of thousands of farmers who grow potatoes in the Indian state of West Bengal are doing now.

They say a bumper potato crop has led to a huge surplus of more than 15,000 metric tonnes and there's not enough cold storage facilities in the state to preserve it for off-season sale when prices are better.

Other food prices have risen sharply this year

The price of potatoes has fallen across West Bengal this month by almost half - to around four to five rupees (12 US cents) a kilogram.

The farmers say they get only half that much - the rest is pocketed by middlemen who the government has so far failed to control.

With such low income, the farmers cannot even hope to recover their costs.

The left-coalition government of West Bengal, that prides itself as India's second largest potato-producing state, is desperately trying to control rural unrest caused by potato farmers who have blocked highways and encircled government offices, dumping their crop all over the place.

Bengal's chief of agricultural marketing, Naren Chattopadhyay, told the BBC that his government has spent nearly 700 million rupees (nearly $18m) in transport subsidies to help farmers sell potatoes to other Indian states where prices are better.

Now the Bengal government has approached many neighbouring states directly, and even Bangladesh, to buy potatoes from them. But so far it is not having much success.