THEY suffer a lot due to low prices of their harvests, though they provide foodstuffs for the rest. We often forget we live on what our farmers produce, and take little care of their labour and efforts. An English daily on Sunday reported that growers are being deprived of fair price due to the prevailing weak marketing infrastructure. This observation came in a roundtable on agri-business and its prospects and problems.
Agriculture holds a major crucial position in the national economy of Bangladesh. It provides employment for most of the country’s workforce. Still now, most Bangladeshis earn their living from agriculture. Due to vulnerability to various risks, the country’s farmers face multifaceted potential limitations on their ability to enhance agriculture production and their livelihoods. Though farmers have limited access to market information, but whatsoever the opportunity they get, is often marred with the loopholes in the government decisions, or by the vested interests who are seen busy with making gains through market manipulation.
Reports have it that farmers do not get good prices, and the government hardly does anything tangible to address it. The reasons behind farmers’ miseries are post-harvest losses, lack of preservation and packaging facilities for fresh produce, and high transport costs resulting mainly from extortion on highways and traditionally third-party dominated market places. These all make the agri-products marketing a burning bar to the growers. Cost swells up while the transport owners are inclined to charge high prices, as they have to count more for extortion. But the government does hardly anything to stop such extra charge as the people who are charging extra bucks have links with the people in power. Thus, an unholy nexus surrounds the agriculture sector. Farm production is rising in Bangladesh, but unfortunately it has not been ensured fair value. Consequently, farmers are getting frustrated, which in turn discourages them to go for fresh innovative drives.
The growers have to face barriers to reach the consumers directly as the whole-salers control the market. These middlemen manage the market putting aside the growers who provides sustenance for the nation. Though private initiatives build a bubble but this is not enough to make the demand go up. Shortage of venture capital keeps the farmers away from taking large-scale production schemes. The farming community thus goes on with traditional tools having low preservation facilities and packaging arrangements. Bio-pesticides, e-marketing or supply chain, whatever might be needed, must be ensured for the farmers first so that they can survive with their existing output.
Farmers are entrepreneurs. The government and the policy makers must provide them the due facilities that an entrepreneur can demand. We believe that farming can contribute a lot to eliminate rural poverty and expand the gross domestic production.
