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Focus on best farm practices, analysts

Star Business Report
It is high time that producers follow the best farm practices to sustain in the market, as consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about food safety worldwide, said Selim Reza Hasan, a market development expert.
"The world market is getting more and more competitive and concerned about food safety. One cannot continue to be in the race if farmers fail to increase productivity and ensure safety standards," said Hasan, country manager of Solidaridad Network Asia in Bangladesh.
Hasan and Nicolaas Josephus Maria Roozen, executive director of Solidaridad Network Asia, shared their views on food safety, farmers' market links, and poverty eradication of small and landless farmers, with a group of journalists in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Solidaridad, an international NGO headquartered in the Netherlands, has undertaken a
five-year project from 2012 to 2016, called the Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security and Linkages (SaFaL) in five coastal districts — Jessore, Narail, Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira.
Under the project, they are helping 50,000 small and landless farm-households by forming 1,000 producer groups; providing them with better farm practices in aquaculture, horticulture and dairy farm; and linking them to local and international markets.
"We have seen how potato and other vegetable producers have been facing losses in recent years. Many were not even recouping production costs," Hasan said.
Shrimp farming in the southwestern coastal district has immense potential as demand is rising; Solidaridad has a special focus on shrimp exports as Bangladesh earns around $400 million a year from it.
"Our shrimp is organic, but we have not been able to market this feature internationally."
Buyers are interested in
shrimps from Bangladesh following the outspread of a viral disease in the Vennamai variety produced in some Southeast Asian countries.
"Bangladesh must make use of this opportunity.” SaFaL will provide a group of producers with toolkits to test shrimps at different stages and ensure that farmers follow certain rules for better water and land management to achieve higher productivity and safety, he said.
Local NGOs, researchers and fish traders will also be linked under the project, said the executive director.
"We need to create agricultural structures linked to local and international markets," said Roozen, adding that if farmers can earn better from their produces, their purchasing capacity goes up, which eventually pulls them out of poverty.
"Linking farmers to traders and exporters also helps bring the latest technologies. Both local and international consumers benefit from it."