Four years ago, when SAFBIN started working with 405 smallholder families in Tanore of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, increasing agricultural production in this drought-prone Barind region was a challenging task. But farmers like Ms. Akhtara Begum (42) accepted that challenge. She is a progressive farmer from Chimna village. Her husband Md. Ruhul Amin (47) inherits a piece of ancestral homeland and a 33 decimal farmland. He leases another 17 decimal farmland on his own. Besides, he used to run different seasonal small businesses for a living. Paddy was the only crop that Akhtara’s family used to grow on their farmland. But their production was not sufficient to supply rice for more than five-six months of the year. Like the other food items, rice had to be bought from the market for about half of the year.
Akhtara’s life changed when she became a part of SAFBIN. She began to learn about more possibilities from her farm, things that she never even heard of. The best part was, Akhtara never limited herself only to learning, she also practiced them in real life. For example, after learning about crop diversification, she started cultivating three crops (paddy, mung-bean, and mustard) a year instead of paddy twice a year. That gave her more production and more profit. It also ensures food security far more than before. Not only this, during the dry season when her land used to remain fallow, she cultivated mung beans as an extra crop. Which makes her land fertile as well.
Inspired and supported by SAFBIN, she began using her fallow backyard for year-round vegetable cultivation. She also started raising native chickens on her farm. This added more variety and nutrition to her family’s diet. Additionally, it helped to her reduce some of the extra cost of buying food. But due to a poor marketing system, she failed to sell the surplus and bring in extra profit. The same thing happened to the other farmers in her area. But they had no idea what to do to resolve the issue. Marketing is a common problem for small farmers in Bangladesh. There are many reasons behind this. One of the major reasons is the small amount of individual production on small farms. In most cases, wholesalers or even retailers are reluctant to buy those small quantities. And it is neither feasible nor cost-effective to take that small quantity of products to the marketplace for selling. The long-standing problem of marketing surplus products discourages small farmers from producing more.
To address the issue, SAFBIN farmers took up community marketing initiative in Tanore. Three production clusters were formed in this area. Each cluster consists of three villages. Among the SHFC members, one was selected as a trader in each cluster. Akhtara and her husband were nominated by their cluster members as the cluster-trader.
She was supported with some essential equipment like a digital weighing scale, baskets, carets, etc. from SAFBIN. This motivated Akhtara and her husband to initiate their job as cluster-trader. SAFBIN staff guided them to prepare a strategic plan in that regard. At first, Akhtara and her husband met with cluster members from three villages and collected information about available products. Then they visited the surrounding markets and conducted an informal survey on product demand. They analyzed that information and enlisted the most demanding products. They had prepared separate schedules for community markets for three different villages. Depending on the availability of the product, a community market is held once or twice a week for each village. It is scheduled either on the previous evening of the weekly bazaar day or in the early morning of the same day.
At the appointed time on the prearranged day, Aktara and her husband go to a certain place in the village. On a whiteboard, they write the price list of the products and wait until the members of the cluster start bringing their products. Aktara and her husband take them at a fair price. They then carry those to the market for selling.
Akhtara says, “There is a huge demand for small-farm agro-foods like fresh vegetables, eggs, mustard oil, homemade puffed rice, and pickles in the market. We can make a good profit by selling these. I got a three-wheeler van from SAFBIN to carry those goods. My husband drives it. It has helped us a lot.”
Akhtara sells out the products that exceed her selling capacity to retailers. Then she and her husband take the rest of the goods in their van and sit in the market. It doesn’t take too long for them to sell all these. Akhtara’s products have a special demand in the market. She has earned the trust of consumers that her products are pure and safe. She makes a profit of BDT 10-12 thousand per month by doing this.
Akhtara said, “Forming a community market is an excellent initiative. Marketing was a problem for small farmers as the quantity of their salable products was small. But now small farmers like me can sell whatever they produce. And in this case, they are also getting a fair price. No one ever before SAFBIN had tried to address that issue.”
Akhtara is happy with her present condition. Her turn-around story is known to everyone. She is considered a change agent in her area. Her two daughters and only son feel proud of their parents.
The community market has created a win-win situation for every market actor. The producers can sell their products from their village at a decent price. The traders like Akhtara and Ruhul Amin couple are making some money by providing important services like aggregation, grading, quality assurance, and carrying to the consumers. And consumers are happy to be assured of safe food at a decent price. And the win-win situation is a major step toward sustainability.
