THE growth in the agricultural sector has hardly benefited farmers and consumers. Because, farmers are denied fair prices for their produce and consumers need to pay exorbitant prices. The situation suggests a manipulative presence of intermediaries and hoarders who influence the market in the absence of adequate government intervention and oversight. For an example, growers of winter vegetables struggle to recover even the production costs and consumers in cities pay exorbitant prices. The difference between the price at wholesale markets in outlying areas and in the city kitchen markets is huge. Winter vegetables such as cauliflower and cabbage sell for Tk 1鈥�2 a kilogram on the wholesale market in the north while they sell for Tk 40鈥�50 a kilogram in city markets. Many farmers are reported to have left their produce to rot in the field as collecting and bringing them to the market means an additional cost. Many farmers say that they are likely to incur losses from Tk 20,000 to Tk 50,000 for produces on a bigha.
When it is understandable that a surplus supply of items, especially perishable items, brings down prices, what is inconsistent is that such a fall in prices almost never benefits consumers. Such a trend is evident in non-perishable items, too. Rice growers, for example, are also denied a fair price for their produce and are often forced to sell the produce for prices below the production cost. Market analysts blame the failure of the authorities to control the influence of intermediaries and hoarders on the supply chain. The government also appears to have failed to intervene in the agricultural sector in the forms of scientific forecast, uninterrupted supply chain and proper distribution system. The failure has led to surplus production of many crops and an unstable market, depriving farmers of fair prices. A manipulated supply chain leads, as an Agricultural Research Institute report says, to a waste of roughly a fourth of many perishable crops. The consumers also remain hostage to the routine manipulation of prices by hoarders and intermediaries. The influence of big agribusinesses is also what deprives both small farmers and consumers of fair prices as the entities, working in syndication, manipulate the market.
Small farmers are already in a precarious financial state because of the rising cost of living and many have taken out loans at a high interest rate for farm production. The authorities, therefore, need to ensure fair prices for the products and for that, they need to attend to supply and distribution chains and free them of the influence and manipulation of intermediaries and hoarders. The authorities should also come up with a better production forecast and inform farmers accordingly.