Four days ago, Makbul Hossain threw away over five tonnes of tomatoes he had spent a quarter of a year growing. The tomatoes were not blighted – they were fine and ripe, ready for the market.
"I just picked them off the vines and let them rot in the field," he said.
Hossain, 60, was speaking on the second day of a three-day symposium organised at the National Press Club by the Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods, a platform of about 200 national, local and grassroots level development organisations.
The farmer from Jhenaidah told the audience that tomato prices had fallen so low that any money he received from their sale would not even have covered the cost of taking them to the local market.
Junaid Ahmed Palak, the youngest member of parliament, suggested that farmers like Hossain could be supported if the government's procurement policy also included buying vegetables from small and marginal farmers. Under the current policy, the government buys only rice and wheat from them.
But, according to one study of six villages in six districts, procurement officials often worked in collusion with wealthy farmers to bar poor ones from the benefits of government procurement.
They usually cited the pretext that small and marginal farmers could 'not adhere' to the government's standards, according to the study by a former director of Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, Muhammad Habibullah.
Palak said the government could take a simple measure by deciding that no one but small and marginal farmers could take part in procurement.
Other presentations pointed out that small farmers rarely have access to the open market and thus secure a fair price for their produce.
Jakir Hossain, an associate professor at the Institute of Bangladesh Studies Bangladesh Studies of Rajshahi University, said farmers' market access had to be substantially and effectively widened.
"But this is not be possible without a comprehensive agrarian reform programme," he added.
Others agreed. "Economic prosperity and development is virtually impossible without the emancipation of farmers," Palak said.
Sharmind Nilormi, associate professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, said 'fair price' meant a price that would allow for the sustenance of both farmers and their families.
"Each of those farmers as well as their families should be able to survive and meet their basic needs. That is what I understand by fair price."
Source: thedailystar.net
