Preservation problem hits vegetable growers: expert

Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha . Dhaka

Although remarkable achievement has been witnessed in vegetable production, farmers are not getting desired benefit due to lack of modern collection, preservation and management process.

‘The country’s vegetable production has increased five times in comparison to late 70’s. But these perishable items get damaged in absence of proper preservation and management process,’ said Shoaib Choudhury, convener of Agro-based Trade and Industry Standing Committee-2011 of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Presenting a key-note paper at a seminar on ‘Agriculture Sector : Present Status and future Prospect’ at the DCCI auditorium in Dhaka on Saturday, Choudhury also an agricultural expert, suggested the government set up medium and large scale industries and cold storages especially for vegetables under Public-Private Partnership to ensure proper management of vegetables.

‘Not only that the government should facilitate the way of sharing experiences of other major vegetable growing countries like Thailand and taking initiatives of imparting adequate training to the growers on preservation and collection of their produces to this end,’ Choudhury added.

On the other hand, export of Bangladeshi vegetables mainly in major Asian and European countries had raised significantly as statistics showed that export of vegetables jumped almost 40 per cent in 2007-’08 fiscal and value rose to $ 90.38 million against the consecutive period of the previous year.

‘Although vegetable export has increased remarkably, it is yet to reach mainstream market,’ Choudhry said adding that the main consumers of Bangladeshi vegetables were mainly Non-Resident Bangladeshis (NBRs) and expatriate workers.

As Thailand had achieved tremendous success in expanding its vegetable markets across the world, Bangladesh could share its experiences both theoretically and practically to enter into the world market, he opined.

‘It’s a matter of satisfaction that foreign airliners like Qatar, Gulf, Kuwait and Emirates airways have showed their interest to carry vegetables from Bangladesh, Choudhury added.

Regarding 20 per cent cash incentives provided by the government to the vegetable farmers, he suggested increase in incentives since the exporters had to pay 75 per cent of their earnings as freight charge.

According to statistics, vegetables cultivation has got momentum across the country and now it has turned into a full- fledged ‘cash crop’ from the ‘kitchen garden’ as export and local demand of these items have gone up remarkably during the last couple of years.

Many districts like Jessore, Jhenidah, Satkhira, Bogra, Rangpur, Jamalpur, Tangail, Narsingdi, Comilla, Gazipur and parts of Chittagong have been treated as ‘vegetable basket’ due to huge farming. Brinjal, beans, guards, tomato, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, radish and spinach are being grown massively in these districts.

Speaking at the seminar as the chief guest, food and disaster management minister Dr Abdur Razzaque laid emphasised on commercialisation of agriculture so that farmers could get more benefit from agri-farming.

He called upon the private entrepreneurs to take appropriate measurers of their own and supplement the government efforts in commercialisation of agriculture which contributes 20.29 per cent to GDP and generates 63.2 percent of total national employment.

Among others, executive director of Krishi Gobeshona Foudnation Dr M Nurul Alam, DCCI president Asif Ibrahim, general manager of Bangladesh Bank Sukamal Sinha Choudhury, senior vice-president of DCCI TIM Nurul Kabir and DCCI director Niaz Rahim also took part in the discussion.

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