Incorporating Small Farmers in the Agricultural Supply Chain: A Pastoral View of Bangladesh

Abstract

In Bangladesh, approximately 52% of the workforce is employed in the agricultural sector. This study is based on the rural rice farmers of Bangladesh who are a major player of this sector, but are caught in the middle of illiteracy and deprivation. The majority of these rice farmers remains landless and commonly uses antediluvian methods of farming. Despite the now established fact in Supply Chain Management (SCM) paradigm that greater coordination among the chain actors can improve overall efficiency of the chain, by benefiting each stakeholder, and thereby improving competitiveness of market economy, the rice farmer in Bangladesh vis-a-vis the producer is not a member of the supply chain. There is no specific path of material flow nor is there a relation among the members of the supply chain governed by the demand- supply equation. A collaborative model is suggested where an improved balance of power will be established between farmers and other members in the supply chain in Bangladesh. The suggested model would ensure that the material flow is governed by the market condition, option for bypassing material flow would be less, therefore option for hoarding and artificial price increase would be limited.