Limited access to markets, falling prices, and weak demand for potatoes have left farmers in Zhamling, Lhuentse’s Gangzur Gewog unable to sell their harvests for months. With buyers yet to arrive, all they can do is helplessly watch as their potato harvest rots in storage. With potato prices falling below 10 ngultrum per kilogramme at the FCB’s auction yard in Phuentshogling, it is very unlikely they will see buyers coming to their village this season. They are now hoping that the Regional Agricultural Marketing and Cooperatives Office in Monggar can help them find a market.
The favourable weather conditions and fertile soil make it easy for farmers in Zhamling to grow almost all kinds of crops.
The village has more than 20 households and almost everyone here grows potatoes as a main source of income.
However, access to market remains a challenge for these farmers. The village sits nearly an hour from Lhuentse town, and it takes more than 30 minutes’ drive from Dungkar, where schools and other institutions are located.
So, farmers rely on buyers to travel to them. They have been waiting for more than three months now.
Every household has a makeshift storage near their fields, which has proper airflow and shields their harvest from the sun and rain.
But this time, the wait for buyers is longer than the potatoes can last.
“I have cultivated potatoes on an acre of land, and I have stored nearly 50 bags weighing 50 kg each, but since we didn’t have any buyers, the harvest is rotting. We tried to contact some of the buyers, but they refused to come, saying the price is not good. We fear that our hard work will go to waste, unable to recover even the production cost,” said Namgay Choden, a farmer in Zhamling.
Farmers are segregating rotten potatoes from those that can still be sold.
“During the harvest time, we filled this storage hut. As we segregated and disposed of the rotten ones, it has come down to what we can see now. The more we throw away, the more it rots. This year the yield was good, but we couldn’t sell even a bit. The rotting is not caused by weather; it is from waiting too long,” said Thinley Wangmo, a farmer from Zhamling.
Last year, I sold a truckload of potatoes, earning about a hundred thousand ngultrum. But this year we are unable to sell any. Usually, truckers come to our place to buy potatoes, but maybe because the price of potatoes is lower this time in the export market, no one has come to buy our potatoes. We have segregated potatoes, ready to sell them depending on size,” added Thukten Gyatsho, another farmer.
The Economic Development and Marketing Office in Lhuentse and the Regional Agricultural Marketing and Cooperatives office in Monggar said they had not received any complaints from the farmers.
After BBS contacted the offices regarding the matter, the Regional Agricultural Marketing and Cooperatives office in Monggar said it will help facilitate farmers to sell their produce. The office is currently in discussion with the eastern aggregator marketing cooperative in Samdrup Jongkhar, which has expressed interest in buying the potatoes.
Meanwhile, the Gewog Agriculture Extension Officer is visiting the village to determine a price with the farmers.
As of Wednesday, a kilogramme of potato at the Phuentshogling auction yard fetched between Nu 19 and Nu 3.
While farmers wait for a solution to sell their potatoes, the next crop is already growing.
Chilli plants are already bearing fruit. All that the farmers can hope is that this crop will not meet the same fate.
Namgay Wangchuk, Lhuentse
