Vegetables and fruit grown in Pabna go to Dhaka and many other districts. Farmers make some profit from early varieties, but in the main season they do not get fair prices, and because the produce is perishable they are forced to sell cheaply, suffering losses. Farmers have therefore long demanded specialised cold storage in Ishwardi in the district.

Farmers say specialised cold storage would let them get fair prices even in the main season and keep supplies of fruit and vegetables steady all year, so consumers would not have to pay sky-high prices.

Ishwardi has many well-known growers whose names locals have joined to the crop they grow: Shahjahan Ali Badsha alias Pepe Badsha (papaya), Jahidul Islam alias Gajor Jahid (carrot), Siddiqur Rahman alias Kul Moyez (jujube), Abdul Bari alias Kopi Bari (cabbage), Amjad Hossain alias Peyara Amjad (guava) and Abdus Sattar alias Shim Sattar (bean).

Many more farmers like them have profited from growing vegetables, and young farmers are coming forward to grow vegetables and fruit. But farmers also face problems. They recently met Pabna deputy commissioner Biswas Russel Hossain to raise their complaints, saying that with specialised cold storage their produce would not go to waste.

They said that when production is heavy farmers do not get good prices, but a little later supply falls and prices rise, so neither farmers nor consumers benefit. With specialised cold storage, both would.

Farmers said Chinese carrots flood the market in the peak season, causing them losses. Jahidul Islam alias Gajor Jahid said he has grown carrots for three decades and grows them on more land than any other farmer in the country.

He said the lack of cold storage hurts him, because when production is heavy he does not get a good market price, but a little later supply falls and prices rise. With specialised cold storage he could store carrots, benefiting himself while consumers would get carrots at fair prices and would not have to buy imported carrots at Tk 200-300 a kg. He complained that carrots are imported from China even during the domestic growing season, hurting local growers, and asked policymakers to take this into account.

Siddiqur Rahman alias Kul Moyez said the demand for specialised cold storage in Ishwardi is a long-standing one. He said guavas from his farm once even had to be fed to sheep, and that with specialised cold storage for fruit he would not be on the list of farmers who have suffered losses.

Abdul Bari alias Kopi Bari, who said he has won a national award for cabbage farming, called for specialised cold storage, saying: "After selling cabbage at Tk 60 a kg for a while, I don't want to sell it at Tk 5 a kg. We want fair prices at all times, and we want consumers to be able to buy at fair prices too." The problem is that vegetables are perishable and cannot be stored, but with specialised cold storage vegetables and fruit could be bought and sold at fair prices all year, he said.

At Pabna's Muladuli vegetable wholesale market, at least Tk 5 crore worth of vegetables changes hands every day. The market is busy with buyers and sellers all year round, and vegetables are sent daily to Dhaka and other parts of the country. At the Muladuli bean market, hundreds of maunds of vegetables were piled across the whole space, and for lack of room vegetables were also stacked in the surrounding area.

Aminur Rahman, a former treasurer of the Muladuli vegetable market, said trading goes on from morning until late at night. Unlike markets elsewhere that meet on set days, Muladuli is open seven days a week.

Wholesalers and others at the market said about 700 wholesale buyers come every day, and 300-350 tonnes of vegetables go to the capital and other places. Beans alone account for 50 to 60 truckloads a day, sent to Dhaka and elsewhere. Many farmers, including Anarul and Shahidul of Char Mirkamari village and Abdul Hai of Manikanagar, said they can easily sell their vegetables there.

Several farmers selling at the market complained that when public representatives speak at meetings, seminars and talk shows it seems something greatly beneficial is about to happen for farmers, but in reality little is done. Input prices have raised production costs, yet farmers do not get fair prices. Without strong market management and government support, farmers keep losing out. Traders now buy produce through syndicates, and marginal farmers are worst off.

Several vegetable growers said vegetables cannot be kept at home like other crops. If specialised cold storage were built, they could store produce when prices are unfair and escape the syndicates' grip.

Shahjahan Ali Badsha, president of the Bangladesh Farmers' Association (BFA), said farmers keep suffering for lack of strong market management and government support, and produce from the region is going to waste without cold storage. He demanded a government agro-based EPZ and cold storage in Chhalimpur, known as the capital of papaya, aubergine and carrot, to protect the region's produce from rotting.

Pabna deputy commissioner Biswas Russel Hossain said farmers have demanded one or more specialised cold stores in Ishwardi, a vegetable-growing area, and they would benefit. He said he would inform senior levels of government.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.