Marketing of Agroforestry Products in Bangladesh: A Value Chain Analysis

Abstract

Bangladesh agriculture, including agroforestry, is dominated by small-scale subsistence farming; however, farmers do not get proper prices for their products due to the involvement of many intermediaries in its value chain. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to analyze the value chain of main agroforestry products and the position of the various intermediaries within it, and to determine the extent of value addition in terms of costs in successive stages of products movements. The study was conducted in Madhupur Sal forests area of Bangladesh and data were collected through questionnaire interviews, focus group discussion, observation and literature review. In analyzing network structures of value chain, the study found that both agroforestry crops and timber marketing have regulated a number of intermediaries which enhanced value addition and created high marketing margins of products. Moreover, farmers had possessed strong negative relationship with intermediaries and that the lack of a farmer organization severely affected farmers’ free and fair access to local markets to sell their products. So, there is an immediate need to establish farmers’ cooperatives in order to reduce unexpected intermediaries from value chain to get fair prices of their products, and to harmonize and execute marketing legislations.