Cash incentives for agro products!

A proposal for cash incentives on export of additional 37 farm produces and products is reportedly under scrutiny. The reason given for the items meriting the scrutiny is widening the export basket and fetching foreign exchange. Exporters of agricultural produces and products claim that some of the items have immense potential for earning a very large amount of foreign exchange. Admittedly, the country needs diversifying its export goods and if agriculture is a viable candidate for this, this certainly should be encouraged. Encouragement does not and should not always entail cash incentives as well. Sure enough, creation of supportive facilities is one thing and giving outright cash for promotion of export is quite another. If certain goods or produces have immense potential, it needs to be exploited in every other way but for the cash incentives.

What counts here most is who are going to be the ultimate beneficiaries -the producers or others up the order in the supply chain? Experiences so far have been bitter for producers in Bangladesh. They are the most deprived lot. Even in domestic market their produces fetch little more than the production cost when luck is in their favour but odds are against them on many occasions when they have to count losses. It happens with vegetables like cabbage, tomato, pineapple and many other perishable vegetables and fruits. Yet another important factor warrants a thorough consideration. There is no guarantee that production of seasonal vegetables and fruits on the export list under consideration will be steady without disruption of supply. Importers abroad will not accept excuses if the supply-line suddenly beaks down or the items are found chemically treated or otherwise below the accepted standard. What happened with turmeric powder in the United States of America should still be fresh in people's memory.

Clearly, against the continuous reduction of agricultural land in a heavily populated small country, there is a need for mapping the total area for cultivation of vegetables and fruits. The area size and production capacity should be calculated first to ascertain if the there is a meeting point between demand and supply. Farmers should as well be thoroughly oriented about use of fertiliser and pesticide in order to avoid any future blacklisting of farm produces and products from Bangladesh. Then the country has to plan for production of foods including cereals, vegetables, fish and fruits in a planned manner. After all, any export drive, least of all one supported by cash incentives, should not stand in the way of ensuring food security of the country. Sure enough, there is a glut of some of the food items and seasonal vegetables and fruits. But a once-drive of export of such items is a non-starter. Better it would be to go for agro-processing of those items in order to include them in the export list. When potato farmers incur losses, middlemen prosper later on by manipulating the market. Situations like this can be avoided if factories for potato starch are set up in a large number and the item is exported. The choice of the agricultural items for export has to be proper.