DAE & potato farmers
My attention has been drawn to a letter captioned-"Good potato harvest" which appeared in this column on April 14, 2008. The letter-writer, Mr. Golam Ashraf, has asked the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) to assist the potato farmers with labour and transport costs for post-harvest facilities which include marketing and storing of potatoes. In reality, the DAE has no mandate or provision for providing such facilities to the farmers. In Bangladesh, the government Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) performs two major functions, viz.(i)Human resources development through imparting non-formal education and (ii)Technology transfer. Through imparting non-formal extension education, the DAE ensures transfer of modern technologies for increasing crop production, economic emancipation and to raise the living standards of the farming community.
Meanwhile, it is indeed a pertinent question, who or which organisation will help farmers in marketing their produce? Perhaps the DAE can organise the farmers and motivate them to adopt the cooperative system of marketing of agricultural commodities. The govt. may provide technical/financial support to DAE for performing such additional activities.
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