The government should give incentives to private sector players to develop the cold chain for storage, transportation and proper packaging of perishables, experts said yesterday.

The cold chain will help farmers get better prices and consumers quality items, they said.

“There should be special financial package for value-chain development of the vegetables sector,” said Anwar Faruque, a former agriculture secretary.

Support should be given to develop proper post-harvest management infrastructure and encourage research and development in the private sector for introducing good seeds.

He shared the view at a seminar on inclusive market development in the agriculture sector, held at the capital's Sonargaon Hotel.

Bangladesh Institute of Develop-ment Studies and Agri-business for Trade Competitiveness Project (ATC-P), branded as Katalyst, organised the event.

Vegetable production in Bangladesh stood at 1.38 tonnes in fiscal 2013-14 and production is growing, said Mohammad Harunur Rashid Bhuiyan, BIDS research fellow, while presenting a paper.

However, various factors such as high production costs, inadequate marketing and post-harvest infrastructure restrain the sector.

He said a separate policy needs to be developed for the vegetables sector that will cover all the players in the vegetable value chain.

The policy should support private entrepreneurs in the marketing of green or processed vegetables.

“The government can encourage private companies to establish standard cold storage and vegetable packaging industries at local level by providing policy support and developing an incentive structure.”

Ensuring quality seed, pesticide and fertiliser through proper monitoring is also important. “This is a big problem in vegetables. There are complaints of over-usage of pesticides and fertilisers.”

Citing fertilisers, he said the dealers' appointment process has to go beyond the hands of the elite and the powerful. Adulteration of fertilisers also needs to controlled, he added.

In another paper, BIDS Senior Research Fellow Nazneen Ahmed stressed regulation and monitoring to ensure that only quality fish fries are produced in hatcheries.

Monitoring the quality of fish feed supplied by private companies is very important as adulteration is a common phenomenon, she added.

Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, senior secretary of the commerce ministry, said the government wants to include every citizen in its macro development planning to ensure inclusive development.

But the inclusion of the poorer section in the market mechanism is very difficult because of the presence and dominance of big players, he said.

“This is very difficult in any country, even for the US,” he said, citing the hoarding of all sugar produced in the US by some mafia as a case in point.

“So, some people in the US are controlling the whole world market.”