Farmer’s death unrelated to potato price, says minister

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Express news service

Posted online: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 01:47:23
Updated: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 02:10:09

Kolkata, March 25 The government has no information of any farmer committing suicide due to dropping potato prices crop, agriculture minister Naren Dey has said.

In the assembly today, citing instances of farmers who allegedly suffered due to poor crop prices, Congress MLA Asit Mal asked if the state government was offering any grant to the families of the deceased.

“S Mullick of Memari village in Burdwan committed suicide recently, reportedly because that he couldn’t get fair price for the yield. In Birbhum, another person attempted suicide and had to be admitted to the Rampurhat Hospital,” he told The Indian Express.

In his reply, Dey said while a farmer’s death has been reported, its cause has not been ascertained yet. The superintendents of police in the respective districts have been asked for a report on the issue. However, there is no official report that suggests that farmers are committing suicide due to poor crop price and debt. “In our state no such incident has occurred,” he said.

Replying to a question raised by MLA Dilip Sarkar on whether the potato crop has been affected by untimely rain, the minister said the loss is negligible. The affected crop amounts to mere 0.20 per cent of the total yield, covering only 710 hectares of the total land under potato cultivation. The affected areas include Khanakul (Hooghly), Basirhat (North 24-Parganas) and Chandrakona (West Midnapore).

Dey told the House that while the usual potato yield is 75 lakh tonnes, this year the production has been around 84 lakh tonnes, which exceeds the 54-lakh tonne capacity of cold-storage plants in the state. Benfed has started purchasing potato from the market at a government determined minimum support price in Hooghly, he added.

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