Sunday | 12 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Sunday | 12 January 2025 | Epaper
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Krishak Bazar, Janatar Bazar good ventures to ensure fair price for farmers

Published : Sunday, 12 January, 2025 at 12:00 AM  Count : 178
M S Siddiqui
Poor market Structure is a reason for spatial price difference of vegetables in Bangladesh. The agricultural marketing system is unproductive because of the diverse territories, scattered land, natural calamities and relatively poor situation of infrastructure (Asian Productivity Organization, 2007).

The farmers in Bangladesh are almost cut off from the market. It is well-known that while the farmers in Bangladesh not only get a much lower share of the profit from their produce,whereas the middlemen undertake a huge of total supply chain and earned a good profit. The supply chain is totally in the private sector without any support and supervision of the government or trade association over the supply chain.  

Agricultural products are typically produced over a widespread spatial region and are expensive to transport compared to their whole value.The supply chain is complex and expensive to take to the end consumers. The vegetable supply chain is not effective for which growers are always deprived of income. The farmers and the middleman are facing three challenges: financial, environmental and less bargaining power.

The middleman in vegetable market are also subject to extortion of various toll collectors and  organized criminals. A middleman is the person who gathers various quantities of produce from different producers and sells them to large-scale traders, processors, retailers, processors or even exporters.

Again these middleman govern and compel the growers to sell the vegetables at a lower price.Due to weakness of the market, the middleman may use their dominant power. The authorities donot adminiter or support the supply system. Bangladesh agricultural marketing lawsempowered the agricultural department to perform the job.The price difference between sales price of farmers and retail price is offered in the cities are also partially due to lack of cold storage and cold delivery vehicles. The perishable nature and seasonal supplies of vegetables cause brutal price fluctuation in every market.

Farmers normally produce the vegetables and sell to local buyers or sell entire crops to local 'pikers' or sell to money lenders who use to finance the farmers with loan program of 'dadan'. Local wholesalers purchase vegetables from farmers and sell those to the divisional wholesalers. Divisional wholesalers buy vegetables and provide those to the regional wholesalers. These regional wholesalers supply vegetables to the wholesale market in the cities and these small retailers buy from wholesalers in the cities and sell to consumers. The Shyam Bazar, Karwan bazar, Shani Akhra bazar are some wholesale markets in Dhaka City wherefrom retailers collect their regular supplies. People of city dwellers purchase vegetables from these retailers operating businesses in different forms. Prices of vegetables varies from place to place because of some unavoidable factors such as transport, nature of middleman, seasonal variation, fluctuating demand and supply and so on.

The barriers of improving marketing performance are predominance of various marketing proceeds, poor communications, lack of government support and absence of private investment (Malakar, 2006). From growers to retailers, all the middlemen gain profits from the products. For that reason, the price of vegetables rises in each of the stages of supply chain. As a result, customers are paying more than they should actually pay.

According to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report, producers in Bangladesh get only 27 percent of the selling price of red amaranth, 44 percent of that of pineapple, 45 percent of that of tomatoes and 46 percent of that of cucumber.The report, "Dysfunctional Horticulture Value Chains and the Need for Modern Marketing Infrastructure: The Case of Bangladesh," also notes that producers get less than 40 percent of prices at the consumer level. Merchants get 43 percent while the remaining 17 percent is spent on transportation, preservation, sorting, packaging and other expenses.

The ADB also recommends that the government relocate wholesale markets away from Dhaka in order to offer services like e-auction, banking and price information to minimise the price gap.The report suggests improving the collection and marketing of products in the production areas with cold chain and other agro-logistics for easy access by farmers and small traders.

The ADB also recommends that the government relocate wholesale markets away from Dhaka in order to offer services like e-auction, banking and price information to minimise the price gap. It also suggests improving the collection and marketing of products in the production areas with cold chain and other agro-logistics for easy access by farmers and small traders.

Policymakers do nothave any visible plan to take care of supply chain with monitoring and provide support with logistics and finance. In a rare example of a "Krishak Bazar" (farmers' market) has been set up in Patuakhali's Kalapara upazila to enable marginal farmers to sell their produce directly to consumers without the intrusion of middlemen, thereby ensuring fair prices. Under the management of the upazila administration, the market was set up adjacent to the Kalapara Press Club, with support from Amra Kalaparabasi, a local voluntary organisation. Farmers from different villages across the upazila went to the market and were happy to be able to sell directly to buyers at a fair price.

In another initiative, the Dhaka district administration has announced the launch of a fair-price market initiative, "Janatar Bazar," to provide daily necessities at affordable rates in a bid to control the price hike of essential commodities and offer relief to the public. The goal is to establish a direct relationship between farmers and consumers while ensuring affordability.The first market will begin operations in February in Mohammadpur, with five more locations to follow across Dhaka.

Essential commodities such as fish, meat, milk, eggs, and vegetables will be sold at fixed prices determined by the district administration.Special facilities will be offered during Ramadan, and software will be developed to manage records and display real-time prices online alongside the stock.These prices will reportedly consider transportation costs and a reasonable profit margin for entrepreneurs.
 
Products will be transported directly from regions where prices are lower, ensuring quality control and cost-efficiency.The initiative involves local entrepreneurs, students, and unemployed youth in managing the markets by constructing infrastructure on government land.

The weakness of the plan is the policy of fixed prices determined by the authoritybut the market competition should determine the prices of products under close supervision of the authority. Let the market play the appropriate role in this venture.

The initiative of Krishok bazar and Janater bazar are very good initiative to ensure fair prices for all stakeholders such as farmers, middlemen and consumers. This is named Community supported agriculture (CSA) programs. The wholesale markets should be relocatedoutside of the cities so that farmers and the consumers can preferably meet and trade among themselves involving a few middlemen. Authorities should ensure price information, improving collection and marketing in production areas with cold chain and other agro-logistics and finance for easy access by farmers and the middleman in the supply chain. The relative trade associations and civil society may also be involved in the initiatives.

The writer is former Non-Government Adviser, Bangladesh Competition Commission and  Legal Economist & CEO, Bangla Chemical




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