Middlemen, wholesalers reap benefit from increased vegetables output

Yasir Wardad Both producers and urban consumers are being deprived of the benefits of rapid increase in vegetable production in the country, farmers and officials said. Md Jahidul Islam, a farmer at Porarhat village under Botlagari union in Saidpur upazila under Nilphamari district this year grew cauliflower on his three bighas of land (1 bigha=33 decimals) and got 182 maunds (1 tonne= about 27 maunds) of crop. "But I failed to get my production cost and incurred a huge loss this year as per maund cauliflower is now selling between Tk 74 and Tk 80 (per kg Tk 2.13 maximum)," he said. Talking to the FE Md Islam said that his production cost was Tk 13,700 per bigha but he hardly could manage Tk 4,500 for his produce at one bigha. The 46-year old farmer said, "Traders from Dhaka, Chittagong, Bogra and so on came to the Mokams (local wholesale markets of agricultural produces) to collect the vegetables and most benefits of our toil went to the middlemen and local traders' pockets." When Md Islam of Saidpur was selling his cauliflower at a throwaway price, parallel to it, the item was sold between Tk 10 and Tk 15 per piece (700 gram to 800 gram) at the kitchen markets of Mohammadpur, Nowabganj Bazar, Karwan Bazar and Mirpur in the capital. Farmers of Rangpur division were selling 'Granola' variety of potato between Tk 1.50 and Tk 2.0 per kg this season while it was sold between Tk 12 and Tk 20 per kg in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Comilla town, kitchen market sources said. When asked Md Sirajul Alam, a trader at Karwan Bazar in the capital blamed the fuel price hike, increased transportation cost of vegetables for the price spiral of vegetables in the city. He said, earlier, a truck full of vegetables would cost them Tk 6500 to 8000 which now costs between Tk 12000 and Tk 14000 (including fare and extortion). The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) data reveals that cultivable area of land and production of vegetables have gradually been increasing over the last three years but the prices are rising at a much higher rate in district level wholesale markets. DAE officials said the acreage of vegetable cultivation target was fixed at 0.763 million hectares aiming to produce 11.90 million tonnes in the fiscal year 2011-12 (FY12) whereas the acreage was fixed in the fiscal year 2010-2011(FY11) was 0.76 million hectares that produced 11.19 million tonnes of vegetables. A key official of DAE said that the acreage has been increased both for the Rabi and Kharip seasons vegetable. Eunus Ali, director (field service wing) of DAE said, "With almost 70 per cent of the Kharip vegetables being already harvested, and according to information based on production of Rabi season acreage that we receive from field levels everyday, we are hopeful about exceeding the target of producing more than 11.9 million tonnes of vegetables in FY 12". Mr Ali also stated that the vegetable production in the fiscal 2009-2010 was 10.869 million tonnes. Records of Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) showed that there has been a sharp increase in the prices of most of the vegetables at district level wholesale markets. The records showed that green papaya was sold at Tk. 640 per quintal (100 kg) during October-November period of last year compared to Tk. 1171 per quintal during the matching period of this year, an 82 per cent increase. Whereas the prices of purble, okra, ridge-gourd has also increased by 54.61, 43.48 and 35.69 per cent respectively, the record showed. Prices of string bean, teasle gourd (kakrol), bitter gourd and pumpkin have increased by 30.53, 62.74, 37.75 and 35.15 per cent, DAM report revealed.