AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTION, MARKETING AND VALUE CHAIN OF POTATO IN BAMYAN PROVINCE

The present study on “An economic analysis of production, marketing and value chain of potato in Bamyan province” undertaken for studying the trend in production, productivity, marketing, value chain, cost of cultivation and problems faced by the farmers in production and marketing of potato. In Bamuan, potato is an important cash crop and source of income of agriculture production. Potato is emerged as an important vegetable crop for Yakowlang district of Bamyan province, with better productivity. Therefore, a study of economics of cultivation, marketing, value chain in Yakowlang district was undertaken. For this study, Yakowlang district and Bamyan center selected because of high level of production. In this study 126 farmers were selected from six villages, three for each district (Bamyan and Yakowlang). Relevant information was collected from the potato producer to know the economics of potato cultivation and analyzed according to various cost concept used in farm management studies. Cost of cultivation of potato calculated from the primary data collected from purposively selected grower of potato of Bamyan province. According to study, using gross margin analysis, net margin of farmers as average is around 134243 AFN per Hectare and according to production and yield of different potato varieties in Bamyan, Kabul and Panjsher provinces. Loura variety give highest yield in Bamyan province i.e. 65.37 Ton per Hectare and similarly in Kabul Amany Variety give highest yield that is 45.71 Ton per Hectare and finally Panjsher province is a major producer of potato in Afghanistan also Amany gives highest yield that is 51.67 Ton per Hectare. Similarly, marketable surplus of three different category of farmers, small farmers are around 88.4 percent, medium farmers were 92.68 percent and large farmers were around 90 percent had marketable surplus. Also major constraints with the farmers in potato production, and marketing ranked first was price instability, followed by high storage charges, uncertainty of water, inadequate marketing facility and spoilage of potato.


Background
Bamyan, is one of the remote province of Afghanistan which located in central highland; majority of people income fall only in agriculture and livestock, farmer are working in a traditional way, working very hard in the summer due to cold winter to store and harvest crops from the cultivated farm for one year expenditure and could sell some for buying the cloths and other necessary commodity for their families, they are not able to have saving for their children education and medical treatment for them so this cause to continue their life in a same manner which inherited from their parent and even ability to think of changes due to economical barrier for implementation of modern and mechanized agriculture system, we can say that there are a few funder organization which help the farmer through Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and livestock (MAIL) and local NGOs to reform the seeds of the agricultural product and market them but this digits are very few than the required need community farmer, one of the most usual, preferred and economically beneficial to Bamyan farmer is potato that people cultivate almost 50% of their farm.
The Bamyan, farmers are striving for the seeds collection, cultivation, harvesting, storing and marketing of the potato because of the cold weather, short summer, lack of reformed seeds, lack of irrigation water, lack of fertilizers, go down, machinery, distribution channel and show room for marketing of their harvest so this all problems gives hand in to hand and create a big challenges in villager and farmer way that prevent the inventive and creative way for the whole potato life cycle from production, storage, process and marketing so this hurdle need to be eliminated by an integrated approach to respond and solve this problem of needy farmer.
Bamyan is land locked province that most of Bamyan's population work in agriculture sector (86%, NRVA 2007-8) and animal production and agriculture play an important role in their economy. Among agricultural production, potato is an important crop that farmer can get higher income from their production. But these farmers have a lot of problems in processing, marketing and clear understanding that how, and where to market their production. This research will help them in better production, processing and marketing skill for farmers, and traders.
The study will be of great benefit to researchers and policymakers as well as those actively concerned in the trade. It is intended that complementary studies will be undertaken in due to course on such matters as the operation of wholesale markets and postharvest technology so that full information is available on which to build a more effective market structure, to the advantage of producers and consumers and the economy in general.
This research aim is to identify the potential market of the Bamyan, potato, production productivity and process how to modernize potato cultivation to optimize the potato production which; increase the level of farmer harvest in Bamyan, region which ultimately cause the economic growth and community welfare.
Hence to identify the cause of this problem why they are not able to come up and grown up local business network that can increase the crops, store them and market it through a distribution channel directly to end user to double the income and dominate the market themselves by empowerment of the village farmer. So this research must give up a glance of the potato cycle Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [3] from a holistic point of view from production, process and marketing of Bamyan, potato. Bye concentrating to the center of Bamyan, and Yakowlang districts.
In Afghanistan about three fifth of the population is living under $2 dollars a day. Due to this prevailing poverty, major portion of the population is incapable to purchase and consume quality nutritious food items. Children are normally underweight and of poor health, causing labour force to low productivity. Afghanistan's economy is agro-based, where over 60 percent of labour force is involved with agriculture and almost 80 percent of population directly or indirectly dependents upon agriculture. Despite its importance in the economy, agricultural production is far behind than its potential level. Small land holdings, minimal or suboptimal use of inputs, due to inadequate purchasing capability of the farmers' are the reasons responsible for low productivity. By consideration of these factors, farmers are forced to grow short duration crops to fetch nominal returns.
Among short duration crops, potato farming is considered one of the most feasible ventures. Potato is the fourth important crop in world after rice, wheat and maize (FAO 1995). In Afghanistan, potato has emerged as a high yielding crop and the area under potato has increased in past years. While Bamyan province is the leading potato producer that 340 thousand tons in 2015. Potato consumption in the country is seasonal and high during the harvest season.

Introduction
Potato is a major food crop, grown in more than 100 countries in the world. According to FAO (2008), potato is consumed by more than one billion people in the world. It is a high quality vegetable cum food crop and used in preparing more than 100 types of recipes. The protein content of potato has a high biological value than cereals and considered to be better than milk. Hence, potato is supplementing meat and milk products by lowering energy intake and also by reducing food cost.
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) popularly known as 'The king of vegetables,' has emerged as 3 rd most important food crop in Afghanistan after wheat and rice. Afghanistan vegetable basket is incomplete without potato. Potato is a nutritionally superior vegetable due to its edible energy and edible protein. It has become an integral part of breakfast, lunch and dinner among the larger population. Being a short duration crop, it produces more quantity of dry matter, edible energy and edible protein in lesser duration of time compared to cereals like rice and wheat. Hence, potato is considered to be an important crop to achieve nutritional security of the nation.

Origin of Potato
South America is known to be the native of potato. In 1537, the Spaniards first came in to contact with potato in one of the villages of Andes. In Europe, potato was introduced between 1580 A.D. to 1585 A.D. in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany. In Afghanistan, it was introduced in 1952 and rarely produced in Bamyan, then it was introduced in Baghlan, Maidan Wardak, Ghazni, Logar and other provinces of Afghanistan. Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [5] Country-wise production of potato in the world from 2009 to 2010 presented by  Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [6]

Potato production in Bamyan
Bamyan is one of the important potato growing province in Afghanistan. Potato is one of the important crops in four districts of the province. Potato is predominantly grown in Yakowlang, Bamyan center, Shibar and Saighan districts. It can be seen from the table, area under potato was highest for years of 2010-11 and 2011-12 which was about 20500 ha and production was highest for the years 2013-14 which was about 302980.2 tonnes as well as the productivity was highest (i.e., 13.6 tonnes per ha) for the year 2014-2015.
Share of different province in total area and production of potato for the years of 2014-15 is showed in Table. 1.4, Potato is grown in all province of Afghanistan.
The area, production and productivity of potato in Bamyan Province are presented in Table 1.5. Potato is a global crop and is a nourishing food that has sustained civilizations for centuries in South America and Europe. Potato has been the most useful during war time experiences of American and European countries bearing testimony to the great value of potatoes as food. Today, the nations of the world are much concerned about their food security, which is closely related to health and malnutrition. Potato is a winter crop with very high yield potentiality as compared to other food crops. It is an efficient food producer and has the potential to become a supplementary staple food besides cereals in the country. It has been recognized as a wholesome food and the richest source of energy in most of the countries where, it forms an important part of the human diet. Carbohydrates (Starch and sugars) 16-18 3.
Crude proteins 2.5-3. Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [8] the calorie value of carbohydrates. Potato can thus be consumed in much larger quantities without running the risk of becoming fat (Chadha, 1994). Potato is one of the most important and popular vegetables available through the year in all parts of Afghanistan. Potato is an ideal crop that is highly efficient in converting sunlight into nutritious food.

Objectives
1) Understanding the production and marketing level of potato and to calculate the cost of cultivation of potato in Bamyan province 2) Identifying the changes of production and productivity of potato in Bamyan province 3) Identifying the most productive varieties of both potato growing in Bamyan 4) Studying potato value and to identify the main constraints faced by the farmers in potato production and marketing

Literature Review
The efficient marketing of potato is crucial to the development of the Afghanistan potato sector and for the provision of an important food source to the urban areas. The range of contentious issues is wide and includes price instability, middlemen's margins, demand trends, postharvest handling, processing and export potential. This study presents for the first time an overview of the potato marketing system and examines the problems that arise. Comprehensive data are provided on price behavior, consumer demand, storage] the functioning of the system, including the seed potato market. Constructive comment is given to assist in overcoming difficulties experienced.
Water permitting, potatoes are an ideal vegetable crop for Afghanistan and the provinces circling Kabul have traditionally been large producers. Potatoes are usually brought by farmers into collection markets from where traders buy and ship them in Hessian sacks to the major regional wholesale markets. Kabul acts as the main transshipment point for other regions of the country. Last year no potatoes where shown as being exported. If accurate, this must be a function of the drought conditions. Traditionally, Afghanistan has been a major supplier of potatoes into the neighboring countries and could be so again. Storage of potatoes is a major constraint to developing this market. There is scope to grow seed potatoes in the remoter areas of the country and provide certified disease free planting material to the rest of the country and to Pakistan. Without adequate storage, this can never be realized.
Potatoes are the most important cash crop produced in the Bamyan province. (AREU, 2007). They surmised some of these problems:  Pressures to sell at low prices directly after harvest  Ineffective traditional storage methods  No direct access to the market  High costs due to poor road conditions and inadequate road infrastructure  Lack of a market for processed potato products According to FAO (2003), Afghan farmers are showing an increased interest in cash crop production from which they have a comparative economic advantage over the production of traditional subsistence crops. Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [9] An important additional consideration that impacts the viability of horticulture is the role that poppy cultivation has played in Afghan crop production. There is currently strong international and regional pressure to reduce poppy production in Afghanistan. Among short duration crops, potato farming is considered one of the most feasible ventures. Potato is the fourth important crop in world after rice, wheat and maize (FAO 2012).
Potato is the second staple food after wheat in Afghanistan. International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and International Potato Centre (CIP) introduced high yielding potato variety Kufri Chandramukhi (KCM) and its production technology to develop an efficient seed production system that helped in reducing poverty and increasing food production in Bahrak district of Badakhshan province of Afghanistan(T. Srinivas and others, 2012). It is grown in an area of 21,900 ha producing 333,600 t at an average productivity of 15.23 t/ha (FAOSTAT, 2012). It is grown in provinces like Bamyan, Ghazni, Helmand, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Wardak, Parwan, etc.

Material and Methods
The chapter deals with the description of the study area, the sampling techniques adopted, the method of survey, the nature and sources of data and the various tools and techniques employed in analyzing the data.
The methodology adopted presented under the following major heads:

Area of Study
The study area was Bamyan center and Yakowlang district of Bamyan. The reasons for selecting Bamyan are as under: 1) Potato is important vegetable as well as cash crop for Yakowlang and Bamyan district of Bamyan province. 2) The Yakowlang district ranks second in term of area under potato cultivation in Bamyan after Bamyan center district. 3) It's the most profitable crop for this area.

Sampling Technique
In orders to achieve the objectives of the study, the purposive sampling technique was adopted.

Selection of District
Potato cultivation in Bamyan is largely concentrated to Bamyan center and Yakowlang district that was the reason that these districts were selected purposively based on its accessibility and relevance of the study. Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [10] Selection of Villages From the two selected districts Yakowlang and Bamyan three villages from each selected district were selected randomly. Total of six villages were selected for the study.

Selection of Farmers
From selected six villages, 21 farmers were selected from each village. For that, a list of farmers from the selected village was prepared and seven farmers were selected purposively category-wise into small (below to 2.0 ha) medium (2.1 to 4 ha) and large (more than 4.0 ha) farmers.
The final sample that emerged thus comprised covered 126 farmers spread over the selected area. The details of selected farmers are given in Table 3.1.

Data Collection
Both primary data and secondary data were collected for the study. From the selected farmers, the primary data were collected on the area covered by potato, cost incurred in inputs, cost of cultivation, prices received, the quantity sold, the output, net profit earned and cold storage information etc. This information was collected through personal interviews with the farmers with the help of pre-tested schedule for the year 2016-17. Similarly, relevant information on market, arrivals, and prices paid and cost incurred in cold storage etc., was obtained through the records of selected market functionaries such as wholesaler, retailers, institutes, NGOs etc. This information was also canvassed through personal interviews of the selected processors with the help of pretested schedules for the year 2016-2017.
Secondary data was obtained from published reports and official records of the Directorate of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), FAOSTAT, Central Statistics Office (CSO) Afghanistan, Agricultural Support Program in Bamyan,

Analytical Procedure
The various statistical tools such as average, tabular analysis indices, SWOT etc. were adopted for analytical procedure. Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [11]

Economics of Potato Cultivation
The data were collected regarding the cost of cultivation of potato for the year 2015-16 from selected samples of farmers. The techniques used in calculating cost of cultivation were simple average, tabular analysis and weighted average adopted for identifying and comparing output, price and net profit of selected farmers, according to the size of farms and for the whole districts.
The cost concept that has been used in farm management studies such as Cost-A, Cost-B, Cost-C1 and Cost-C2 covered in the analysis. The input items included for various cost concepts are as under: Cost In the study area, farmers do not cultivate as tenant farmers.

Limitations of the Study
The study is related to economics of production, marketing and value chain of potato in Yakowlang and Bamyan districts. In view of the time and resources constraints, all the possible efforts were made to make the study more perspective and precise.
The following were the limitations of the present study: 1) The area of the study was limited to only Bamyan and Yakowlang districts of Bamyan province. 2) As per the area under cultivation of potato crop, six villages from Bamyan and Yakowlang district were selected. 3) The primary data were collected only for potato cultivation 2016-17 by survey method.

Results and Discussion
The chapter deals with the finding of the present investigation that has been made after subjecting the data to the necessary tabulation and analysis, keeping the objective in mind. The finding of present study is discussed in the following four objectives mentioned earlier: Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [12] from 14 tonnes per hectar to 13.6 tonnes per hectar in 2008-9 and 2014-15 respectively. As presented in table below.  The cost of cultivation studies in an area not only furnishes information on the relative profitability of the enterprises, but also serves as a guide for better choice and combination of farm input for maximizing returns. The cost of cultivation of potato mainly depends on the major input used, techniques of cultivation, yield and prices for major inputs. Profit depends on sale price and yield obtained. Generally, farmers do not take into account their fixed capital, depreciation cost of own fixed implements and machinery etc., used on the farms. They generally count Cost-A, only which includes operation cost only. But in the scientific study like this, the Cost-A, Cost-B, Cost-C1 and Cost -C2 were estimated.

Average Size of Farms and Family Size of Selected Farmers
Average size of farms and family size of selected farmers in Yakowlang district is presented in Table 4.2  Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [13] farmers was under potato crop. The average area under potato cultivation increases with the increase in the size of farms. The average area under potato cultivation per farmer was estimated to be about 2.03 hectares. Per head, area under potato cultivation ranged from 0.0062 to 0.51 hectares with an average of 0.32 hectare.

Productivity of 13 potato varieties cultivated by FAO in Bamyan
As     Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [15] As the result presented in Table 4

Cost of Cultivation
It is well known that potato being labor intensive crop requires relatively higher investment than other field crops. Factor-wise distribution of total cost and per hectare is graphically depicted in  Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [17]

Estimate of Different Cost
Estimate of different cost such as Cost-A, Cost-B, Cost-C1 and Cost-C2are presented in Table 4.3.

Yield, Gross Income and Net Gains
Details regarding yield, gross income and net gain realized per hectare over different costs are presented in Table 4.9.

Marketable Surplus of Potato
Farmers have to give up a considerable quantity of their produce in a different way viz., home consumption, seed requirement, deterioration, given to relative etc. After deducting all these internal consumptions from total production, the remaining quantity of production is available for the farmers to sell. The average internal consumption, average production and average marketable surplus of potato by selected farmers are presented in Table 4.9.  Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [19] Among the selected farmers, the seed requirement was higher in case of small farmers (20.66 bag) than large farmers (11.56 bag) and medium farmers (4.91 bag). The reason may be use of seed potato were higher by the small and large farmers. It was noticed that, the percentage share of produce kept decreased with increase of the size of farm, reason is may be large size farmers used new and high productivity variety, further it was observed from the table that, deterioration, given to relative and home consumption increased with increased size of farms.

Place-Wise Sale Within and Out of District
Place-wise sale within and out of Yakowlang district is given in Table 4.10. The producers disposed off their produce out of district mainly to Ahmedabad market, it was observed that about 79.94 per cent was sold within the district, but 20.05 per cent off produce was disposed off out of the district by selected farmers. The quantity of potato sold within district in percentage term was higher for small farmers (85.00 per cent) followed by medium farmers (80.00 per cent) and large farmers (75.00 per cent) whereas the quantity of potato sold out of district in percentage terms was higher for large farmers (25.00 per cent) followed by medium farmers (20.00 per cent) and small farmers (15.00 per cent)

Constraints Faced by The Farmers in Production and Marketing of Potato
The perusal of the data presented in Table 4.12 reveals that "price instability of potato" was the main problem faced by 53.17 per cent of potato growers and this was ranked first. This was followed by high storage charge 50.79 per cent, which ranked second. The constraint viz., uncertainty of weather (39.68 per cent) obtained third rank. While inadequate marketing facilities (36.50 per cent) and spoilage of potato (34.12 per cent) was placed in fourth and fifth ranks respectively. Unavailability of labour (33.33 per cent), lack of credit for storage facility (31.74 per cent) and non-remunerative price for potato received sixth, seventh and eighth ranks, respectively. This result indicates that the major problem faced by the potato growers were price instability of potato, high storage charges, uncertainty of weather, inadequate marketing facilities and spoilage of potato. Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [20]  The important problem faced by the farmers was price instability of potato, because potato is a risky crop and it's production is uncertain, if season is favorable farmers get bumper production.
In case of several disease attacks, production goes down and hence the prices are fluctuating every year, secondly potato is a perishable crop.
The second problem faced by the farmers was high storage charge, this may be due to the fact that construction of cold storage requires high cost, for which owner has to take the loan. On the other hand, the electric charges are also high. As result they are charging high rent from the farmers in order to maintain their profit.

Summary and Conclusions
The present study on "An economic analysis of production, marketing and value chain of potato in Bamyan province" was undertaken for studying the trend in production, productivity, marketing, value chain, cost of cultivation and problems faced by the farmers in production and marketing of potato. In Bamuan, potato is an important cash crop. Potato is emerged as an important vegetable crop for Yakowlang district of Bamyan province, with better productivity. Therefore, a study of economics of cultivation, marketing, value chain in Yakowlang district was undertaken.
For this study, Yakowlang district was selected. 126 farmers were selected from the six villages, three for each district (Bamyan and Yakowlang). Relevant information was collected from the potato producer to know the economics of potato cultivation and analysed according to various cost concept used in farm management studies. Cost of cultivation of potato was calculated from the primary data collected from purposively selected grower of potato.

Constraints Faced by The Farmers in Production and Marketing of Potato
1) The major constraints faced by the farmers in production and marketing of potato were price instability of potato, high storage charge, uncertainty of weather, inadequate marketing facilities, spoilage of potato, unavailability of labour, lack of credit for storage facilities and non-remunerative price of potato.

Suggestions
1) The seed cost is very high, therefore it's better to produce own seed and store in cold storage.
2) The provision of adequate cold storage facilities in the rural areas to be provided for the potato growers.
3) The farmers are compelled to sell their produce in the market just after the harvest because of their immediate cash need. So adequate and timely credit facilitate may be provided to potato growers through institutional agencies. 4) The rent of cold storage is very high so government should try to reduce the storage charge. 5) Government should declare support price for potato and purchase the same if market price falls below the level. 6) Contract farming is better and increases knowledge level of farmers so government should pave the ground for connecting private sectors and potato growers.