An Assessment of Potato Contract Farming in West Bengal State, India

This paper assessed the system of contract farming in potato cultivation in the state of West Bengal, India, by comparing the production of potatoes under noncontract and contractual systems. The data were collected from 139 noncontract and 144 contract farmers spread over 13 blocks of four districts of the state during the year 2008. The results indicated that no government functionary was involved in the contract farming arrangement and that the agreements were largely verbal. Vendors were appointed by the company; they managed the total affairs for a group of villages. Although the price was fixed well before planting, it was not fixed uniformly across the state. Contract farmers planted more seed per hectare than noncontract farmers and used relatively more seed from their own seed stock. The number of agricultural assets per household was higher in contract farmers. Further, it was found that the cost of cultivation was higher for cv. Atlantic as compared to cv. K. Jyoti. The major costs were those for planting, fertilizers and micronutrients, irrigation and land preparation for both cultivars. Farmers without contracts incurred losses but contract farmers growing cv. Atlantic received net returns of about INR15,000 (EUR 238) per hectare. Lack of remunerative price, bad seed quality, occurrence of late blight, expensive seed and labour shortage were the major constraints faced by the noncontract farmers. The contract farmers also experienced many problems like high cost of cultivation, late blight infestation, low yield, lack of clear contract agreement and difficulties in disposing off the leftover potatoes. The findings suggest an involvement of the local government, a uniform fixation of the price throughout the state, written and clear agreements and development of good dual purpose (processing as well as table) potato cultivars for the farmers for boosting the enterprise. For noncontract potato farming, a 'price stabilization fund' could be created to minimize the price fluctuation. Low-cost farm implements, low-cost and effective late blight controlling fungicides, supplying good quality seed at reasonable rates by the Agriculture Department were some of the other suggestions emerging from this study.