Deprived farmers
Photo: Kajol Islam / Driknews
Last month when I was coming back to Dhaka from Sylhet by a Shohag Poribahan bus, it stopped at a place in Brahmanbaria to facilitate passengers offer Jummah prayer as it was Friday. There I witnessed a very unfortunate thinga number of young and older people hawking vegetables like sweet bitter gourd, lady's finger, brinjal packed in net and poly bags each one weighing more than 5 kg. The price of each bag was ranging from only Tk.20-25 (for sweet bitter gourd and lady's finger) and Tk.25-35 (for brinjal). One can imagine prices of these vegetables in the markets of Dhaka and other big cities of the country. We also found farmers selling their agricultural produces at wholesale rate which seemed also far below the cost of production. This situation testifies that farmers are not getting their genuine return (cost plus profit) from the sale of their hard-grown produces. And this is a common picture throughout Bangladesh. There is no doubt that the production of agricultural crops has increased significantly following successful intervention by different agricultural extension, research, and service oriented organizations of the government. At the same time it is to be admitted that farmers are not getting fair prices of their agricultural produces, one main reason being absence of appropriate and efficient marketing facilities which include transportation and storing. On the other side, a smaller group of traders are taking out the bulk of financial benefits through selling various agricultural commodities at an exorbitant price in the big city markets. They are also creating artificial scarcity of agricultural commodities in the markets. Now the question is, how to keep prices of agricultural commodities, not only of crops and vegetables but livestock and poultry products under control? In my view, the government may establish a separate agency like 'Agricultural Marketing Authority' which will create direct marketing opportunities for all the agricultural commodities including dairy and poultry products. This agency will also control market price of various agricultural commodities and monitor marketing opportunities by using ICT technology. This agency may also be given magistracy to administer legal bindings instantly. The present Department of Agricultural Marketing may be re-structured to form the above-suggested 'Agricultural Marketing Authority'. Until and unless the government takes full control of agricultural marketing, interests of both producers and consumers cannot be protected.
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