Staff Reporter, Gaibandha/

Agriculture dependent Gaibandha district has only five privately established cold storage facilities. Farmers of different upazilas of the district are having to suffer while keeping the agricultural products due to less cold storage than required. Even large quantities of vegetables are wasted due to lack of refrigeration. Farmers are suffering financially.

It has been found that out of the seven upazilas of the district, there are three freezers in Gobindganj upazila, one each in Sadulyapur upazila’s Thapherhat and Sundarganj upazila’s Bamandanga. Apart from this, farmers are in dire straits as there is no cold store in Gaibandha Sadar, Saghata, Phulchari and Palashbari upazilas. These five cold storages are Himadri Limited of Gobindganj Upazila, Gobindganj Cold Storage-1 (Bakchar) and Gobindganj Cold Storage-2 (Suryagari), Ashraf Seed Store and Cold Storage at Bamondanga in Sundarganj Upazila and RD Cold Storage at Thaper Hat in Sadulyapur Upazila. The total storage capacity of these cold storages is 47 thousand 200 metric tons. The production of round potatoes in seven upazilas of Gaibandha is about 72 million metric tons. Although these cold stores were established three decades ago, no government or private cold store has been established in the district since then. Because of this, the farmers of Gaibandha district are suffering from various types of vegetables including potato, onion, tomato, sweet pumpkin, pepper, ginger, brinjal. Arif Hossain, a farmer of Gaibandha Sadar Upazila, said that even if the family runs by growing vegetables, most of the time they have to calculate the loss. Vegetables have to be sold at a low price despite the huge yield. If there was a system of cold storage, then the produced vegetables could be stored and later sold at a fair price.

Abdur Razzak of Dighalkandi char of Saghata upazila said that there is extensive cultivation of pepper in char. At present, raw chili is being sold at Tk 20 per kg. There is no storage. All buyers and sellers would benefit if there was a local storage system. Jamal Uddin Sarkar, a raw material trader of Saghata Bazar, said, We buy various types of raw materials from Bogra and Gobindganj and sell them as retail and wholesale. But if they are not sold, they are wasted. If cold storage could be set up by government or private enterprise then vegetables or other products would not get wasted.
M Abdus Salam, the founder and chief executive of the non-governmental development organization Gana Unyanyan Kendra, said that the biggest problem of the farmers is the lack of storage system for the products. In this case, it is necessary to set up cold storage facilities on the banks of the river by government and private initiatives. Then the loss of farmers will be less. Gaibandha District Agricultural Marketing Officer Shah Moazzem Hossain said that only round potatoes are stored in five cold storages in the district. 15-16 percent of the total potato production in the district is wasted due to lack of cold storage. Production in cold stores is about 40 percent more than storage capacity. These vegetables are sold in various markets of the country to meet the needs of the local market.
He also said that although different types of vegetables and different types of grains are produced in remote areas including grazing areas, there is no provision for keeping different types of vegetables and fruits in cold storages. Therefore, entrepreneurs are requested to come forward to set up cold storage facilities where seasonal vegetables and fruits can be kept.

Gaibandha District Commissioner Md. Oliur Rahman said, now all kinds of food are being produced in Gaibandha district. Especially, the food like pepper, almonds, corn, brinjal, onion, dal and spices are produced more in the grasslands, but they are being destroyed due to lack of preservation. There are plans to set up cold storage in public and private initiatives.

Gaibandha-5 Constituency Member of Parliament Mahmud Hasan Ripon told CNBangladesh that it is necessary to set up cold storage and storage facilities considering the production of farmers in the grasslands. This has been discussed in the concerned ministry and a plan has been taken to set up two cold storage facilities in Saghata and Phulchari upazilas soon.