Bharat Upreti, a wholesaler of potatoes at Kalimati wholesale market, says the amount of Indian potatoes arriving in the market has dropped to 10 tons per week, as compared to around the usual 70 tons.
And the long drought of the past winter season, which pushed down the levels of potato production in Nepal, has further worsened the shortage. Due to the meager imports from India, the Nepali markets are now entirely dependent on local production, on the potatoes produced in the Kathmandu Valley and in the adjoining districts.
But, says Upreti, even the markets in the Kathmandu Valley have not been spared; the amount of potatoes arriving in the valley from the surrounding areas has dropped--to 10 tons from the usual 15 tons per day. Furthermore, the mounting price of other alternative vegetables has also served to ratchet up the price of potatoes in the market.
Things wouldn´t have been this bad if so many things hadn´t gone wrong together. First, if the local production levels had been anywhere near the expected, then that might have at least softened the blow. In fact, the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (MoAC) had originally predicted that the production of potatoes would rise by 1.4 percent to 2.08 million tons and that increase in output would have been a huge blessing. But the winter´s drought and shortfall of rain put paid to that prediction. Thus the dependence on India became even more pronounced.
But India too came up short. The major states in India from which Nepal imports potatoes--Bihar, Assam, West Bengal and Gujarat--all saw huge declines in potato production. According to Dr Hari Dahal, spokesperson of MoAC, these states saw reductions in production by as much as 50 percent.
And the problem of shortage in Nepal was further compounded by yet another factor: Nepali farmers started selling off their yields across the border, in India, because the potatoes fetched much higher prices there.
The days of Nepalis´ having to put up with expensive potatoes might linger for quite a while. “The upward spiraling of the price will continue until the different vegetables items are newly harvested,” says Upreti. But the next major potato- harvesting time will only take place around November. That means that Nepali households, where potato is a staple feature, will have to grin and bear it for at least six months more.
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