In the current market system, middlemen's influence means farmers sell their produce at low prices, while consumers buy the same produce at several times the price from retail markets. Passing through several hands also takes a lot of time.

Against this backdrop, a "farmers' market" has now opened in Tikatuli in the capital to ensure a fair price for produce. It is in ward 39 of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).

The market was opened on Friday 7 October as a joint initiative of DSCC, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and Work for a Better Bangladesh (WBB) Trust, with support from the government of the Netherlands.

The opening event heard that, to supply healthy and safe food to local residents, ten farmers from Tetuljhora in Savar, vetted by the DAE, will sell their vegetables and fruit at the market every Friday from 7am to 2pm.

The market was opened by the chief guest, Rokon Uddin Ahmed, councillor of ward 39 of DSCC. Moderated by WBB Trust senior project manager Ziaur Rahman, the event was addressed by Saiful Islam Joy, executive engineer of DNCC Zone-5; Nasir Uddin Bhuiyan, sub-assistant agriculture officer of Savar upazila; Pedro Andres Garzon Delvo, food system policy economist, Dhaka Food System project, FAO Bangladesh; and Gaus Piari, director, WBB Trust.

DSCC ward 39 councillor Rokon Uddin Ahmed said that although food production in the country has increased over the past 50 years, ensuring safe food remains a major challenge, as chemicals are added at every stage from production to marketing. At the farmers' market, farmers will deliver the safe food they grow directly to consumers.

He said the local residents' demand for safe food could be met by taking up this programme on a wider scale, and the councillor's office would ensure all help to run the market smoothly.

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