Agricultural marketing problems in Bangladesh involves cleaning & drying, absence of organized storage, lack of transportation, processing & preservation, lack of organized marketing etc.

1. THE PROBLEMS OF
AGRICULTURAL MARKETING IN
BANGLADESH
Cleaning and Drying
Farmers do not have this facilities and they bring their produce to the
markets as it is assembled from the fields.
Cultivators get low price due to uncleaned and undried products
Absence of Organized storage
There is not much organized storage for agricultural produce and
what is available is not within the reach of the average farmer.
the methods used by most of the farmers are of indigenous type
(such as, storage in woven-split bamboos, bamboo baskets, jars and
pitchers, mud-walled ‘golas’ and ‘golas’ made of bamboo and wood,
etc. and they have to suffer a huge loss during storage.

2. LACK OF TRANSPORT FACILITIES

3. MULTIPLICITY OF INTERMEDIARIES
A large number of intermediaries operate in the agricultural
marketing of our country.
The middlemen take a large share of the consumer’s
expenditures. They are Faria, Bepari, Aratdar, Dalal or Broker,
Stockist, wholesaler and retailer.
This multiplicity of intermediaries affect the efficiency of
agricultural marketing of Bangladesh.
FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES
The farmers have to meet many financial commitments at harvest
time those are met by either by selling the produce or by
borrowing money from some private sources as there are no
adequate arrangements for such credit by the Government.
Private sources of finance are too costly and to avoid taking loans
from sources, growers sell their produce immediately after harvest
at a very cheap rate.

4. LACK OF GRADING AND STANDARDIZATION
Our farmers do not usually grade their
produce. Certain products such as jute,
tea, hide and skin have standard grades.
In case where the producer undertakes
the sorting and grading, it is seldom
profitable to him. The product is
purchased at the ordinary market rate
when his product reaches the market.
There is in fact a constant tendency for
low quality to drag down the price of
high quality.
In the absence of grading, the quality of
the produce is also often
underestimated by the Farias and other
middlemen buyers.

5. PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION
Seasonal gluts of various agricultural commodities are not uncommon in
the markets. Farmers sometimes fetch such a low price as is not even
sufficient to cover the cost of cultivation. One way to avoid such gluts is the
storage of agricultural produce.
But there are certain commodities, especially fruits and vegetables which
can not be stored for long. In their cases the other alternatives to avoid
such gluts is that commodities be processed and preserved for sale
through longer period.

6. MARKET INFORMATION
Information on daily prices
and their fluctuations,
stocks, dispatches of
agricultural commodities,
market sentiments, etc., is
important to help producers
to decide where and when to
market.
In Bangladesh, the farmers
are ignorant of the current
prices and their trends,
demand and supply at house
and abroad, etc. Because
there is no organized means
to provide them information
necessary for the effective
marketing of their produce.
A weekly and monthly

7. FRAUDULENT PRACTICES
 ‘use of false weights and measures’ and
‘levying of a variety of charges.’
For example, one seer varies from 60 tolas
to 120 tolas although it is officially
equivalent to 80 tolas. Similarly, a maund
may be of 30 to 60 seers depending on the
local custom of the different areas.
The traders also sidely use bricks, stones
etc. as weights and thus they deceive the
consumers.

8. PRICES
Prices are the crux of the whole problems for the farmers
Three types: farm prices, wholesale prices, retail prices. The farmer is
mainly concerned with the farm and wholesale prices.
the farmers get a low price due to large supplies in harvesting season
and poor holding capacity.

9. LACK OF CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING
 In our country where the units of production are small and the growers have
a little amount for this, the importance of co-operative marketing can not be
ignored. But our farmers carry on their activities on individual basis.
The number of farmers’ Co-operatives in the country is very insignificant in
comparison with other countries like Japan, U.S.A. etc.
For example, in Japan, about 70% of the farmer’s sales is made through co-
operatives and in the U.S.A. it is 23% while in Netherlands it is 100 % for
vegetables and 70% for fruits.’
Lack of co-operatives weakens the bargaining position of our producers.

10. MEASURES TO IMPROVE THE AGRICULTURAL
MARKETING
1. Improve Transport Facilities
2. Increase in the Credit Facilities
3. Increase in Storage Facility
4. Market Reforms
5. Creating New Markets
6. Building Cold Storage
7. Disseminating Market Information
8. Grading of Product
9. Doing Marketing Research
10. Standardizing the weights and measures

11. In our country especially, where most of the growers are even
unable to pay the land revenue after harvest of the crop, it is
impossible to bring any substantial improvement in the system of
marketing by individual efforts. Hence, combined efforts of the
growers, government and non-government institutions, policy
makers, researchers and practitioners is necessary to remove some
of the defects prevailing in the present system.