Like rice, potato is a mainstay for the average consumer in everyday meals. So, when potato prices go beyond the reach of consumers, it is highly concerning. However, if past experience is anything to go by, the plight of retail consumers has never really been a priority area for effective market intervention by any government.
As things look, it is not merely a problem of market syndication. One of the greatest Achilles heel in Bangladesh, at least for policymakers of both past and present, has been the lack of reliable data for proper planning. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) which is the national repository of statistics is the only national-level institution that offer baseline data needed by researchers to formulate effective policies. Sadly, that institution has never lived up to its full potential. In the greater scheme of things, the BBS has never figured tall in being a choice for individuals wishing to make a successful career in public service. The BBS needed statisticians but this was never made mandatory.
For decades, the BBS came up with unreliable data on a whole range of sectors, particularly agriculture. Despite complaints from government functionaries and private sector, nothing much changed. Today, projection on agriculture remains shrouded in mystery and confusion. How exactly do policymakers make informed decisions when they do not have a clear idea about the annual need for potato with its use as food and seed? They don't, and this confusion leads to all sorts of problems. Today, farmers and consumers are stuck in a low and-high price trap, where both groups are denied either a fair price for the produce or a high a price respectively. This situation is created because of the demand-supply gap.
As pointed out in a report published in The Financial Express, potato used for meal is priced at Tk 70 -75 a kilogram and seed potato is hovering at around Tk 85-95. It is simply astonishing to know that the price has gone up by Tk10-15 a kilo within a few days. While sufficient data exist on the role played by several formal and informal intermediary cartels in the market that mark up the price of any item, it is also a fact that growers and consumers remain in the dark about prices at both ends.
As a perishable item, potato requires cold storage. Again, while there is ample knowledge about the lack of sufficient cold storages in the country, precisely how do national planners go about rectifying the situation if they do not know what the annual demand for potatoes is going to be? How exactly are financial outlays to be made to ready cold storages with reliable power supply when predicting crop output remains a guessing game?
It is not about having big centralised cold storages at every major production hub. One that requires for farmers to rush to these collection points defying the odds - bad road connectivity, insufficient transport facilities, traffic, inclement weather, rent-seeking, etc. There has been enough research globally that have come with low-cost solutions to preserve perishable items (like potato) without power at growth hubs. Promoting such solutions through not only the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) but also through thousands of NGOs that exist in Bangladesh, under a national plan of action could cut down on the serious wastage of the crop that happens every year. These are doable and it does not require mega-budgets. Rather, these are cost-effective options that farmers would be comfortable with. The financing for setting up these facilities can be done at village level where farmers may jointly share a part of the cost, the rest being borne by the state.
Over the years, the private sector has emerged dominant in the field of agriculture over-and-above state enterprises like the BADC. While it is easy to paint the private sector as a bunch of bloodsucking, greedy group of entities focused squarely on profitmaking, it is also a fact that the private sector steps in where government entities fail to deliver. The demand-supply gap provides opportunities for private sector to fill the gap. Unlike state entities, the private sector has its own means to carry out qualitative research to forecast demand for its products to sell to consumers - seeds to farmers and potatoes to consumers. Where government machinery is slow and cumbersome, private sector is lean and efficient.
Until the government gets its acts together in collating and delivering reliable data on everything from the demand for potatoes to rice, lentil, etc., these fault lines in pricing will continue to exist. A few market drives by consumer rights directorate will be nothing more than eyewash because the state is not focusing on the real problem.
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