Abdul Aziz, a farmer in Char Nangalia in coastal Subarnachar, Noakhali, has grown beans, bitter gourd, cucumber and other vegetables on one acre around his homestead this year. Beans, an early winter vegetable, have already reached the market. He sold them to wholesale buyers at Tk 45 a kg, yet on Friday beans were selling at Tk 100 a kg in retail markets in the capital.

Manikganj, a district near the capital, is well known as a vegetable area. Sharif Mia of Fukurhati in Saturia upazila there has grown early cauliflower, cabbage and bottle gourd on 65 decimals of land this year. Seed, fertiliser, pesticide and labour cost him Tk 40,000. He recently began selling, getting Tk 15-20 for each bottle gourd. On Friday, traders sold the same gourds wholesale through commission agents at Karwan Bazar for Tk 30-35, and retail markets sold them for Tk 50-55.

It is not only beans and bottle gourd. There is a similar gap between farm and consumer prices for almost every farm product, including tomatoes, carrots, onions, green chillies, aubergines, radishes, cauliflower and cabbage. Even with record production the market stays out of control, while farmers in the field do not get fair prices. Consumers get some products, such as potatoes, cheaply, but then the farmers lose out. Most farming families cannot become well off from farming. Despite higher output, controlling the market, ensuring fair prices for farmers and getting safe food to consumers at affordable prices are now the big challenges. Job losses, falling incomes and other problems during the coronavirus pandemic have made food security even harder to ensure.

Against this backdrop, World Food Day is being observed today, 16 October. It is being marked in Bangladesh, as in other countries, jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This year's theme is "Our actions are our future: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life". The Ministry of Agriculture has organised various programmes to highlight the day.

On Saturday morning an international seminar is being held at a hotel in the capital, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as chief guest. In the afternoon a technical session will discuss how to meet the challenges of food security.

President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages for the day. The President's message said that to ensure safe, nutritious food for people, waste must be reduced and habits of balanced, nutritious eating built. The Prime Minister said in her message that thanks to the government's farmer-friendly policies and programmes, Bangladesh is now self-sufficient in cereals, fish, meat and eggs and is on the threshold of self-sufficiency in milk.

Farm production in the country has risen steadily and has continued to grow even during the coronavirus. The Ministry of Agriculture says Boro output in 2020-21 was a record of more than two crore tonnes, the highest in the country's history. Output of every crop rose compared with last year. Total rice production was 3 crore 86 lakh tonnes, wheat 12 lakh tonnes, maize nearly 57 lakh tonnes, potatoes 1 crore 6 lakh tonnes, vegetables 1 crore 97 lakh tonnes, oil crops 12 lakh tonnes and pulses 9 lakh tonnes. Comparing 2009 with 2020, rice production grew by 23 per cent, wheat by 45 per cent, maize by 675 per cent, potatoes by 101 per cent, pulses by 375 per cent, oilseeds by 42 per cent and vegetables by 578 per cent.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) puts per capita rice consumption at 416 grams, which means the country needs 2 crore 58 lakh tonnes of rice. Production is far higher than that, yet prices have risen. Although the country is said to be self-sufficient in rice, rice now has to be imported to build up government stocks and bring down market prices. According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), fine rice is now selling at Tk 58 to 68 a kg and coarse rice at Tk 46 to 56.

Dr Nazneen Ahmed, country economist at the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said one of the main reasons for rising prices is that large companies have entered the rice business. With the paddy and rice stocks held by big mills, they can control the market whenever they want.

Meanwhile, chicken prices have also risen by Tk 10 to 20 a kg. Most vegetables now cost more than Tk 60 a kg, and some common everyday vegetables cost more than Tk 100.

Source: Samakal. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.