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RANGPUR, May 30: Natural cold storages have ushered in a new hope to the potato farmers of different areas under Rangpur district in recent years.
The farmers are showing their interest in eco-friendly natural cold storage as they can store potatoes in such cold storage at cheaper rate.
Bangladesh Agricultural Marketing Department is providing technical and logistic support to the farmers across the region in developing this sort of natural storages.
Visiting different areas of Rangpur Sadar, Mithapukur and Badarganj upazilas recently it was found that farmers stored huge amount of potatoes in natural cold storages.
Md. Shafiqul Islam, a potato grower of Tampat area of Rangpur Sadar told The Financial Express that last year he stored 220 sacks of potato in natural stores and could make satisfactory profit after selling his produce when its price increased. This year he has stored 300 sacks of potatoes in this natural cold storage and is optimistic of earning good profit, he added.
A good number of farmers told this correspondent earlier they had to sell potato in the fields soon after harvest because they could not afford cold storage fare.
But presently, the natural cold storage costs nominal amount of money and thus the farmers can save huge money, they also said.
Marketing officer of Agricultural Marketing Department, Rangpur region ASM Hasan Sarwar said natural storage has gained much popularity among the farmers across the region. It is so easy to construct this type of storage. It is a hut with corrugated sheet roof. It requires around Tk 0.1 million to erect the hut with bamboo platform, three feet high from the ground, he also said. About 30 tonnes of potatoes can be stored in the storage, he added.