Seed Potato Marketing in Bangladesh1
Md. Mamunur Reza2
ABSTRACT
The present situation of seed potato production and
marketing in Bangladesh both under public & private
sectors have been discussed. To avoid importing of seed potatoes
from abroad, Tuber Crops Research Centre of
BARI established a breeder's seed production farm at Debigonj
& BADC established foundation seed production farm at Domar. Moreover
recently some private companies have started supplying seed potatoes to the
market. How much seeds they produced, production area, cost benefit ratio,
market, demands and supply system including marketing channel have been mentioned. Factors influencing seed potato marketing and price instability also have been pointed out with hints about Promotional activities and area that
need improvement. With the production
of seed potatoes, need of increasing storage facilities discussed in the seminar paper.
1.
A seminar paper presented at the graduate seminar course
on 7 Feb. 2013
2. MS student,
Dept. of Horticulture, BSMRAU, Gazipur-1706
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oObjectives:
1.
To provide recent information on present status of seed potato production,
marketing & distribution by BADC and other source.
2.
To identify the problems regarding seed potato marketing.
3.
To find out some way how the problem can be overcome.
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Present status of potato:
Potato cultivation has been getting
popular in Bangladesh over the last several years. Although the
weather condition was favorable during the sowing period in this year, the area
of local variety remains almost same. It was found that the farmers were
interested to grow more high yielding variety. According to the field report it
is observed that good management and distribution system of seed and
fertilizer brought substantially higher production of this crop. More over
there was no climatic disaster against potato production. As a result, the
yield rate has significantly increased although there has been 1.45% decrease
in total volume of production due to decreasing area.
Area:
Total area under potato crop has been
estimated at 10, 63,204 acres (4, 30,255 hectares) in last year compared to 11,
37,192 acres (4, 60,197 hectares) of the following year. Comparative area
estimates of last year (2011-12) as well as following year arc shown below-
Table-1: Estimates of Total Area of
Potato Crop by Type
Variety
|
2010-2011
|
2011-2012
|
Percentage
changes over
|
||
Area
|
Area
|
Area
|
Area
|
||
(Acre)
|
(hectare)
|
(Acre)
|
(Hectare)
|
previous year
|
|
Local
|
1.84,301
|
74,583
|
1,79,601
|
72,794
|
(-) 2.40%
|
High Yielding
Variety
|
9,52,891
|
3,85,614
|
8,83323
|
3,57,461
|
(-) 7.30%
|
Total Potato
|
11,37,192
|
4,60,197
|
10,63,204
|
4,30,255
|
(-) 6.51%
|
(BADC, 2012)
Yield
Average
yield rate has been estimated at 206.76 maunds per acre (19.071
metric tons per hectare) compared to 196.15 maunds (18.093 Metric tons per
hectare) of last year. Estimated yield rates of this year as well as following year are shown
below:
Table-2: Estimates of Yield Rate of
Potato Crop by Typed
2010-2011
|
2011 21012
|
Percentage
|
||||
Yield Per Acre
(Maundy
|
Yield
Per Hectare
(M.Ton)
|
Yield Per
Acre
(Maund
|
Yield
Per Hectare
(M.Ton)
|
|||
Variety
|
changes
converges
previous year
|
|||||
Local Potato
|
126.43
|
11.662
|
124.99
|
11.512
|
(-) 1.29%
|
|
High Yielding Variety
|
209.64
|
19.337
19.337
|
223.45
|
20.611
|
6.59%
|
|
Total Potato
|
196.15
|
18.093
|
206.76
|
19.071
|
(+) 5.41%
|
|
(BADC,
2012)
Production
Last
year total potato production has been estimated at 82, 05,470 metric tons,
compared to 83, 26,389 metric tons of the previous
year which is 1.45% lower. Estimates of production of this year and the previous year are as
follows.
Table-3: Estimates of Production of
Potato Crop by Type
Variety
|
2010-2011
|
|||
2011-2012
|
Percentage
changes over
previous year
|
|||
Total
Production (M.Ton)
|
Total
Production
(M.Ton)
|
|||
Local Potato
|
8,69,787
|
8,37,967
|
(-) 3.66%
|
|
High Yielding
Variety
|
74,56,602
|
73,67,503
|
(-) 1.19%
|
|
Total Potato
|
||||
83,26,389
|
82,05,470
|
(-) 1.45%
|
(BADC,
2012)
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Conclusion
Present
status of seed potato production, marketing & distribution by BADC and
other source are not so much satisfactory. BADC is supplying only about 2.25% of quality seeds
and Private Sectors are supplying 1.75% seed potato. Rests of all are farmer
seed. In this condition private organizations have great demand and lots of
scope for seed potato marketing. Though there are lots of problem prevailing we
should try those entire identified problem to minimize following suggestion.
And finally keep running advance research on improving variety, minimizing
production cost and modernizing marketing system.