For the preservation of potatoes from wastage, the government has initiated to construct 450 model storage houses to store more potatoes for exporting the commodity abroad.

The initiative is part of a project of the Ministry of Agriculture titled ‘Diversified Uses of Potato, Storage and Marketing Development’ and it now awaits the Planning Commission’s approval, a senior official of the Planning Ministry told The Financial Post.

According to the proposal, Bangladeshi farmers cultivate 40 varieties of potato and the annual production is around 97 lakh tonnes but the potato storage capacity across the country is only 28.10 lakh tonnes.

The proposed model storage houses will be built through local technology with bamboo, wood, corrugated sheets, bricks and RCC pillar, the project proposal and they would be built in 76 upazilas and two city corporations under 17 districts.

The districts are – Dhaka, Munshiganj, Chattogram, Cumilla, Chandpur, Rangpur, Kurigram, Niphamari, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, Rajshahi, Naogaon, Bogura and Joypurhat.

The cost of the project is estimated at Tk 42.76 crore which will come from the government exchequer. The Department of Agricultural Marketing will implement the project by June 2026.

“We have held a project evaluation committee meeting on the project. We have cleared it and sent to the planning minister for approval,” the official said.

According to the project, its main component is forming 450 marketing teams comprising 30 members each to increase the marketing capacity of farmers. The marketing teams will connect exporters of the country with the growers to export more potatoes.

Under the project, 18,900 farmers, traders, agriculture entrepreneurs and agro-processing related persons will get training for potato diversification.

About the matter, the chief of Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Institutions Division of the Planning Commission, Md Foyzul Islam, said the project will help to store more potatoes and export those different countries.

“Increasing storage capacity by setting up more storage houses is apparently a solution,” he said, adding that the natural storage capacity is effective so.

It will also help expand the export market of potatoes and develop the social infrastructure for local farmers, he said.