Fixing the broken chain that keeps farmers poor

Most Bangladeshi farmers are smallholders who, lacking storage and market access, are forced to sell their harvests immediately—often at the lowest prices. Photo: TBS

Last April in Rajshahi, potato farmer Mamunur Rashid harvested 6,000 sacks (each containing 70 kg) but could store only 700 sacks in cold storage. The rest began rotting, and he was forced to sell them at Tk 11/kg, though his production cost was reportedly over Tk 25/kg. 

By most measures, Bangladesh's agriculture appears to be booming: output is rising, and the country now claims food self-sufficiency. Yet the smallholder farmers who champion this national achievement remain trapped in a cycle of debt and poverty. Mamun's story is not an exception; it is the fate millions of farmers in our country face every year.  

Anatomy of a broken system

The challenges are glaring and well-documented. The system is burdened by layers of intermediaries, massive post-harvest losses, and stark power imbalances. For the average farmer, toil in the field rarely translates into financial stability at home.

Much discourse focuses on the role of local traders and brokers who mediate nearly every rural transaction. But these intermediaries are not the root problem; they are symptomatic of deeper structural failure where formal logistics and infrastructure are absent. 

Most of Bangladesh's farmers are smallholders. They produce modest surpluses and lack scale, logistics, or infrastructure to access regional markets. Without storage or cooling, they often have to sell immediately after the harvest—when prices remain very low. 

The scale of this inefficiency is staggering. A national study recently estimated that Bangladesh loses a third (34%) of its farm produce before it ever reaches a consumer—a loss equivalent to 4.0% of the nation's entire GDP. Loss is especially acute for perishable crops: common estimates suggest 20–40% of tomatoes, mangoes, and potatoes get spoiled after harvest. For farmers, this means distress sales at giveaway rates; for the nation, it means lost nutrition, wasted resources, and lost export opportunity.

A national cold chain network should be seen as core infrastructure for food security and climate resilience. To catalyse action, the initiative could be anchored by financial institutions, which can blend concessional debt and private capital, leveraging their national networks to deliver on their mandate for social and economic development. Policymakers must offer incentives—tax breaks and tariff exemptions on cooling technology—to attract investors.

This is not merely an agricultural issue. It is economic, climatic, and related to social justice as well. When farmers do not receive fair returns, rural households falter. Young people abandon farming for precarious urban jobs. A country that prides itself on food security sees value slipping away through broken chains—a situation made evermore precarious by increasing and unpredictable climate events.

The investment gap: Why capital stays away

There are bright spots. Farmer cooperatives help smallholders pool produce; social enterprises and agri-tech startups are testing fresh models. But they remain far too small to bridge the infrastructure chasm. For example, experts estimate that the Bangladeshi agri-tech sector has raised only around USD $20 million over a decade—a modest sum compared to many mid-sized fintech rounds.

Why hasn't private sector capital filled this gap? Because agriculture is perceived as risky: millions of fragmented smallholders, climatic volatility, and razor-thin margins. The needed infrastructure—cold storage, transport, grading—requires long-term capital that doesn't align with short-term return expectations.

That is where public-private partnership (PPP) becomes essential: the government's role is not to build everything itself, but to de-risk investments and create a stable environment for private capital.

A blueprint for prosperity: The national cold chain

One practical vision is a solar-powered, multi-tier cold chain linking farm clusters, district hubs, and export gateways. Village-level modular cold storages could double as processing nodes for cooperatives; district centres could take on grading and packaging; while peri-urban hubs near airports could connect to export markets. This model is not purely theoretical: in other countries, post-harvest infrastructure improvements have been found to raise farmers' income by 30% or more.

To catalyse action, the initiative could be anchored by specialised public sector financial institutions, which can blend concessional debt and private capital, leveraging their national networks to deliver on their mandate for social and economic development. Policymakers must offer incentives—tax breaks and tariff exemptions on cooling technology—to attract investors. A national cold chain network should be seen as core infrastructure for food security and climate resilience, deserving fast-track approvals and regulatory clarity. 

Fixing this chain doesn't just salvage domestic value; it unlocks the door to high-value global markets for Bangladesh's high-quality produce, turning a source of loss into a new engine for growth.

Bangladesh stands at a crossroads. Globally, food systems are strained by climate change, supply shocks, and population growth. Locally, millions of small farmers teeter on the brink while youths migrate to cities. 

We can continue letting harvests waste and farmers suffer, or we can make bold structural investments that restore prosperity, resilience, and dignity. Fixing this broken chain is more than an economic imperative; it is a moral one. It is about affirming the dignity of our farmers, creating a future for rural youth, and building a resilient Bangladesh.

Saba El Kabir is a sustainability practitioner. He can be reached at saba@cultivera.net

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.