Bangladesh's potato yield is expected to be more than 11 million metric tonnes this year where the domestic demand is only about 7.7 million metric tonnes, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As only around a quarter of the surplus can be stored for sale, the loss of the farmers due to unsold surplus production and post-harvest losses is estimated at between Tk25-35 billion. To prevent this significant loss, the government has been encouraging potato exports. Read: Bangladesh to supply potato to Russia, says Russian Embassy According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), more than 480,000 hectares of land were under potato production this year. Potato producers recently come together to inaugurate this year's exports, a sign of the country's continued success in selling potatoes abroad, the FAO said. Four potato producer cooperatives joined the inauguration in Pairabandh, Mithapukur – the third annual inauguration in a row. Guests included Md Sayedul Islam, secretary at the agriculture ministry, and Benojir Alom, director-general of the (DAE). Private sector exporters and other government extension agency representatives also joined. Farmers from the northern region of Rangpur have been producing export-quality potatoes by using good agricultural practices (GAP), a collection of principles for safe and healthy farming and processing. The success of this initiative is due to a partnership between the Sara Bangla Krishak Society, a national network of farmers' organisations, and FAO, under the "Missing Middle Initiative" project. The project provided GAP training to 100 farmers from four cooperatives. More than half of the farmers were women. The farmers also received pre-production, inspection, and post-harvest assistance. FAO organised a pre-season buyer-seller meeting for officials from the Bangladesh Potato Exporters' Association to meet smallholder potato farmers. Officials from the BPEA liaised with foreign buyers to get specifications and orders. The potato producers have grown 450 metric tonnes of Santana potato, a high yielding Dutch commercial variety. They were also able to procure seeds from the exporters at an affordable price. The producers also grew Diamant, Cardinal, Granola, and Asterix varieties which are in high demand in Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The Ministry of Agriculture, through the DAE and the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, has been supporting potato producers to increase export since 2019. Read:Bangladesh to increase potato export to ensure better price to farmers : Commerce Minister There are, however, challenges which include meeting export protocols of importing countries, lack of sufficient quantity of preferred varieties, lack of farmer awareness of export quality potato varieties, and finding ways to produce potatoes without quality issues such as hollow hearts, brown rot, or insects. To address these challenges, the agriculture ministry is sharing GAP with farmers throughout the country. The formulation of a Bangla GAP policy is almost complete. Work is also in progress to set up advanced laboratories to meet exporters' sanitary and phytosanitary requirements. FAO Representative in Bangladesh Robert D Simpson said: "To truly thrive, the potato export value chain requires a productive alliance between all involved – the government, private sector, and producer organisations." "Bangladesh has a lot of potential to grow commercial and export varieties of potatoes, and we are working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture to boost potato exports to strengthen food security and increase incomes for farmers and farming communities." FAO's Missing Middle Initiative has also supported potato producer cooperatives to establish virtual call centres which help them buy inputs and sell their produce. Salma Akhter Adury, a virtual call centre operator at Birhim IAPP Farmers' Cooperative, told how she landed an order by sending photos of their potatoes. "I sent photos of our Santana variety potatoes to the exporters. The exporters were impressed with the high quality, and we received an order for more than 200 metric tonnes for our cooperative from two exporters," she said. Arif Azad Prince, managing director of MASAWA Corporation, an agro-processing and export company, said the combined effort of the government, FAO, exporters and producer cooperatives have ensured a strong export supply chain. He said: "Potato producer cooperatives ensured the use of good agricultural practices to grow quality potatoes and collectively sell potatoes to our company." "We offer a fair price to the farmers, and our importers get shipments as desired. The result is that Bangladesh's potato value chain has a strong reputation among all stakeholders."

Two cold waves in 45 days, accompanied by rain and fog, swept over the district this winter and in its wake left the farmers to struggle with late blight disease of potatoes.   Fearing an outbreak of the disease and subsequent losses, many farmers have started harvesting potato although the crop is yet to mature enough.   Farmers cultivated potato on 15,000 hectares of land in eight upazilas of the district this season, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).   The weather was favourable for potato at the beginning of the season but plants started dying because of late blight, the DAE said.   Farmers fear big losses as potato in most of the fields are getting dry while the plants the roots of the plants are decomposing.   They said the plants begin to grow potato at the end of December when a cold wave was sweeping over the district. The weather did not improve for several days and the disease emerged.   Potatoes started to turn yellow and were drying out, they said.   At the DAE’s advice, farmers applied anti-fungal spray but after two weeks, the district was again hit by a cold spell. The symptoms of late blight reappeared, prompting farmers to harvest potato and sell them before time.   Experts said late blight emerges in humid condition and if the appropriate fungicide is not used, it can destroy the entire plant in a matter of days after the first lesions appear.   Infected tubers are often invaded by soft rot bacteria which rapidly convert adjoining healthy potatoes into a smelly, rotten mass that must be discarded.   Several farmers from Nongorpur in the Sadar said they used anti-fungal spray at the advice of DAE but it did not make any difference.   Things are looking gloom for the farmers.   Hasmot Ali, a local farmer, said he cultivated potato on two bighas (66 decimals). “The plants were growing properly at the beginning but the disease affected them in the last one week,” he said.   “The yield would have been higher if we could harvest the potato after two to three weeks. But I fear that I’ll incur more loss if I don’t sell the potato now [as the fields have been affected by late blight],” he said.   Jashore DAE Additional Director Emdat Sheikh said they are aware of the situation.   “We’ve have visited different areas of the districts and found that some fields have been affected by the disease,” he said. “We’ve advised farmers to apply anti-fungal spray to prevent the outbreak.”