High yield coupled with the present market price of the newly harvested potato has made the growers happy in the region, including its vast Barind tract, during the last couple of weeks.
Currently, the farmers are seen spending their busiest time harvesting potatoes from lands and transporting those to the market for sale everywhere in the region.
Habibur Rahman, a farmer in Chimna village under Tanore upazila in the district, has cultivated the cash crop on four bighas of land. He’s now harvesting his crops and keeping them in cold storage for sale at a convenient time.

At the beginning of this season, the price of potatoes was Tk70 to Tk80 per kilogrammeme; later, the retail price declined to Tk18 to Tk20 per kilogrammeme at present.
Rahman said most of the newly harvested potatoes are being transported to the markets for sale as they are green and their shelf life is very short.
Abul Bashar, 53, another farmer of Baya village under Paba upazila, has cultivated potatoes on around 170 bighas of land in Duary village under the same upazila.
He had cultivated the cash crop on 110 bighas of land in the same area last season and harvested around 9,000 maunds of potatoes, and his profit was around Tk1 crore after selling those. He is also very hopeful about this year's output.

Kazi Rashidul Islam, another potato farmer from Mohanpur, is cultivating potatoes on 300 bighas of land this year. Besides farming, he sells potato seeds. This year, he will collect 300 tonnes of seeds. Of these, he has sown 100 tonnes of seeds for his scheme.
Seeing the business opportunity, Abdul Awal, a resident of Mundumala under Tanore, has started potato farming on a lease basis. He has cultivated potatoes on 85 bighas of land.
Many Tanore and Godagari residents sold their one-crop fields to buyers from different areas. Now potatoes are being produced on these lands.

Meanwhile, around 39.08 lakh tonnes of potatoes are expected to be produced from 1.56 lakh hectares of land in all eight districts of the division during the current Rabi season.
According to the latest official data, the target of producing 14.60 lakh tonnes of potato has been set from 58,414 hectares of land in four districts of the Rajshahi Agricultural Zone and 24.49 lakh tonnes from 97,985 hectares in four other districts of the Bogura zone.

The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has set the target and adopted all sorts of measures to attain the cherished goal.
Mijanur Rahman, an operator of a deep-tube well in Krishnapur village, said the farmers are seen cultivating potatoes instead of Boro paddy in the Barind area and the Tanore and Godagari upazilas in particular.
He identically mentioned that the farmers are interested in potato farming as its being adjudged a less-irrigation-consuming crop than the Boro paddy.
Simultaneously, commercial potato farming has been expanded to the dried lands in large amounts during the last couple of years in the vast Barind tract as a result of promoting irrigation facilities by the Barind Multipurpose Development Authorities (BMDA).
Agriculturist Sirajul Islam said the field-level officials, experts, and other organisations concerned have been providing necessary instructions to the farmers to make their upcoming farming a total success.
Most of the growers have harvested better yields of potatoes in the last two to three years. Islam said processing potatoes can be the best way to ensure their proper and multipurpose use by resisting post-harvest losses.
Simultaneously, there are scopes for generating potential entrepreneurs in the fields of potato diversified use, preservation, and marketing.
The production of potatoes increased to a greater extent in the region compared to its demands. Like other parts of the country, commercial farming of the cash crop has become popular in the Rajshahi region.