Fair prices elusive

Aquaculture and poultry farmers are not getting fair prices for their produce even after producing fish, meat and eggs in large quantities and putting in a lot of money behind inputs, including feed, said growers at a national policy dialogue yesterday.

Sharing the same miseries, growers of mango, pineapple and tomato urged policymakers to take measures to establish processing and storage centres and quarantine stations in production hubs and to provide easy and low-cost credit and training to ensure safe cultivation and marketing.

“Many farms have closed down failing to withstand losses resulting from low prices and high and unstable prices of day-old chicken, feed and medicine,” said Nasima Begum, a poultry farmer from Kapasia in Gazipur, at the event at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) jointly oranised the dialogue under a Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation System (CDAIS) project.

Five farmers producing poultry, fish, mango, pineapple and tomato shared problems and concerns faced by tens of thousands of their peers throughout the country. Qudrat-E-Khoda, an aquaculture farmer, said 41.34 lakh tonnes of fish was produced annually against a demand for 40.50 lakh tonnes.

As a result, farmers were not getting fair prices, he said, adding that high cost of feed was another major problem. Cost of feed accounts for 75-80 percent of the production cost, he said.

A paper on a summary of policy issues circulated at the event mentioned that the fisheries sector was the most rapidly growing one in Bangladesh with an average growth rate of 5.7 percent in the last 10 years.

The paper suggested either tax cuts on imports or subsidies to reduce the cost of feed. Problems faced by mango, pineapple and tomato growers were found to be different.

Ismail Khan Shamim, a mango orchard owner from northwest Chapainawabganj, a district prominent for the fruit's production, urged for a stop to authorities destroying mango solely on the basis of allegations without seeking proper evidence.

“Many farmers became bankrupt for this,” he said, demanding market monitoring and surveillance to ensure quality of pesticide and establishment of cold storages for short term preservation at growing regions to ensure export of pest-free mango.

Jesi Chakma, a pineapple grower from the hill tracks of Chattogram, said there was no processing facility of the fruit in their area although it was a production hub.

Mina Begum, a tomato grower from the southwest district of Jashore, demanded support for setting up processing factories in her locality so that they could make value added items from the vegetable and curb freefall of prices during winter.

The CDAIS, through five regional dialogues, found that value chain actors -- farmers and others -- of pineapple and tomato were not organised, which was necessary for sustainable production and business of tomato.

Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry, said farmers produce a surplus of a number of foods.

“We are now in surplus in poultry,” he said, adding that growers have been selling eggs below their production cost for the last two years.

At the farm gate, tilapia is sold at Tk 60-70 each kilogramme, he said, adding that tomato growers cannot sell their produce in the peak of the harvesting season for an abundance of supply.

“We should give subsidy to fisheries, livestock and agro processing sectors to help farmers and facilitate the flourishing of these sectors,” said Razzaque.

Mohammad Nazmul Islam, additional secretary to the agriculture ministry, said the ministry has decided to update all polices related to agriculture.

Manfred Fernholz, team leader for food and nutrition security and sustainable development at the Delegation of the European Union in Bangladesh, stressed establishing linkage among value chain actors.

“We need to work together on value chain,” he said. The dialogue was chaired by BARC Executive Chairman Kabir Ikramul Haque.