Abstract
Although an agro-based country, the farmers of Bangladesh do not receive significant returns from their products, due to some obstacles blocking the achievement of this ultimate goal. This study tries to identify the major challenges of the agroforestry product supply chains in Bangladesh, and offer an alternative solution through the involvement and experiences of farmer cooperatives within a Japanese cooperative model. The objectives were outfitted by two case studies, and the Bangladesh case clearly showed that the involvement of many intermediaries in agroforestry product supply chains was one of the main obstacles that stunted the outcomes of the agroforestry programs. The intermediaries have maximized their profit by buying the farmer products at low prices and selling them back at higher prices, which resulted in high marketing margins. Meanwhile, the Japanese case study had articulated that the farmer-driven cooperative approach, with its good marketing strategies and service functions, could successfully eliminate the intermediaries’ involvement in farmer products, and make a cooperative a strong economic organization. Despite a few challenges, the farmer-driven Japanese cooperative approach would be a good solution that could tackle the middleman problem, and make agroforestry a sustainable production system in Bangladesh.
Highlights
Bangladesh agriculture is dominated by small-scale farming; more than 77% of people are directly or indirectly involved in agriculture, and a good portion of the country’s GDP (16.33%) comes from the agricultural sector [1,2,3]
We used different survey questionnaires for the collection of data in Bangladesh and Japan; these questionnaires were mainly focused on demographic features, household and agroforestry income, agriculture and forestry activities, the production of food crops, intermediary involvement, major constraints, product cultivation costs, the price determination of products, marketing channels of the farmer products, service and functions provided by the coop (Japan case), credits, extension and collaboration, etc
This study found some limiting factors that were hindering the outcomes of agroforestry programs, such as the involvement of intermediaries at different levels of agroforestry production and marketing channels, which was the leading limiting factor
Summary
Bangladesh agriculture is dominated by small-scale farming; more than 77% of people are directly or indirectly involved in agriculture, and a good portion of the country’s GDP (16.33%) comes from the agricultural sector [1,2,3]. The Bangladesh Forest Department started agroforestry programs in the form of participatory approaches at the Madhupur Sal forests area in 1989, and so far, these programs have been well accepted, and have involved more than 3000 local farmers [9]. In these programs, farmers have opportunities to produce agricultural crops such as pineapple (Ananus comosus), turmeric (Curcuma longa), ginger (Zingiber officinalis), aroid (Colocasia spp.), etc. Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives, which are locally called as Nokyo or JA, are probably the largest small-scale farmer-based organizations in the world [20]. The Shimogo farmers are categorized into seven different producer groups (e.g., Vegetable, Rice/Cereals, Milk, Dairy, Pig, Chicken, and Tea), and each group has their own representative bodies who manage the cooperative
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