Marketing of Vegetable Seeds: Practice and Behavioral Inclinations of Vegetable Seed Sellers and Farmers in Selected Areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

This research was based on a survey conducted in Bangladesh in three major seed-producing divisions, viz., Dhaka, Mymensingh, and Chittagong. Descriptive data was gathered by randomly selecting 100 peasants and 100 rural retailers for in-depth interviews. The general accounting approach was also used to assess profit and loss. The objective of the study was to analyze the marketing tendencies of vegetable seed farmers and sellers. The results showed a lack of market information, poor institutions and arrangements, poor marketing infrastructures, transportation system, and high and unfair profit margin distribution among the value chain actors with little share to the farmers in the vegetable seed market. These findings are indicators of poor marketing efficiency and thereby suboptimal operation of the seed marketing system. The significant determinants of market supply of vegetable seeds were found to be the average current price, age, the total size of land, farmers’ experience, sex, number of oxen, and access to market information. The determinants of demand for vegetable seeds—family size, purchase frequency, the average current price, income level, average expenditure on food and purchasing, profit or loss of vegetable seed farming—were found to be significant in the study. According to the findings of this report, vegetable seed sector in Bangladesh needs more government support, especially in terms of marketing policies in order to improve the current state of vegetable seed farming. Vegetable seed farming was not profitable due to a lack of technology and knowledge, as well as a lack of funding. With the existing status of infrastructure, the presence of middlemen is unavoidable. As a result, farmers have no alternative but to follow the orders of the middlemen, resulting in seed quality problems. Hence, the results are indicative of the measures that should be taken for production, market infrastructure, arrangements, and institutions to improve the functioning of the seed marketing system. It also proposes a vegetable seed distribution channel through which a cooperative community would serve as a collecting hub for a more efficient marketing scheme.