Bumper brinjal yield brings tears to farmers, smiles to middlemen

Bumper harvest of brinjal has posed problems for farmers in many districts this season in the absence of proper marketing facility and government intervention in ensuring fair price for their produce.
The high yield of brinjal has caused its price to crash, putting the farmers at the mercy of traders.
Brinjal was selling at Tk 4-Tk 7 a kg in Narshingdi, Gazipur, Jamalpur, Mymensingh, Bogra, Rangpur, Comilla and Barisal districts in the past week.
But the drop in prices at the growers' end could hardly benefit urban consumers, as the vegetable is still selling at much higher prices in the city, allowing middlemen to pocket a huge profit, said market experts.
According to the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM), brinjal was selling at Tk 30-Tk 50 a kg in Dhaka and Chittagong cities.
According to the Horticulture Division under the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), framers cultivated brinjal on about 31,500 hectares during Rabi season with an output target of 0.32 million tonnes.
They harvested over 0.2 million tonnes of brinjal so far. But the farmers who expected a good profit are now forced to sell their produce from the field at throwaway prices.
Md Ashraf Ali, a farmer at Belabo in Narsingdi, said they do not have any storage facility. So, they are selling brinjal directly to traders to avoid further losses.
Ali started harvesting brinjal in February.
He was expecting a total of 34 maunds of the produce from his one bigha of land (33 decimal) by the first week of April. He collected 23 maunds of brinjal in March alone.
He said brinjal price now ranges from Tk 4.0 to Tk 7.0 a kg in his village against a production cost of Tk 14 a kg. "I have to count a loss of Tk 4,500 this season."
Deputy director (market info) of DAM Md Abdur Rashid told the FE that brinjal prices in ten districts plunged to a three-year low.
He said farmers were selling the produce only at Tk 4.0 a kg in many villages in Narsingdi.
He admitted that lack of storage facility and absence of government initiative to ensure fair prices for farmers have been the main reasons behind the current plight of brinjal growers.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan said prices of brinjal and some other vegetables in Dhaka city are 200-350 per cent higher than at the farmers' end.
He said there is no market monitoring which encourages middlemen and big traders to dominate the market, depriving both the farmers and consumers of fair price.

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