Bangladesh’s President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has called for transforming agriculture into a profitable, revenue-generating sector, singling out the country’s potato paradox: growers in the north are sometimes left with no choice but to dump produce on roads, while seed potato prices climb later in the season. “Farmers are compelled to dump potatoes on roads, while seed potato prices rise later. Potato prices also increase significantly when the produce reaches Dhaka from production areas,” he said, as reported by The Business Standard.
The president made the remarks on 14 October during an exchange-of-views meeting at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) in Gazipur, where he stressed that farming is no longer profitable enough and farmers are leaving the profession, according to Bangladesh Pratidin. He argued that farmers are being deprived of fair prices despite rising production because of inadequate preservation and processing facilities, and urged authorities to extend cold storage suitable for potatoes, tomatoes, other vegetables and fruits, while bringing the private sector into marketing, processing and preservation technology.
The gluts the president describes sit on top of a record harvest. Bangladesh produced about 11.5 million tonnes of potatoes in fiscal year 2024-25, up roughly 9% from 10.6 million tonnes a year earlier, on 492,000 hectares of planted area — well above the country’s annual demand of around 9 million tonnes, of which about 1 million tonnes is needed for seed, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data cited by New Age showed. Stakeholders warned at the time that a considerable share of the surplus risked being left over by the start of the new harvest.
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The waste is measurable. A World Bank study presented in Dhaka in September 2025 put post-harvest losses for potatoes at 21.8%, within a 17–32% range for horticultural crops, The Business Standard reported. Much of the loss traces back to weak infrastructure: cold-chain coverage remains narrow, and storage economics have been deteriorating — in March 2025, northern potato growers blocked a highway to protest cold storage fees that had roughly doubled to Tk 8–9.5 per kg from Tk 4–5.5, as detailed by Prothom Alo.
The fee spike pushed smallholders to sell immediately after harvest at farm-gate prices of Tk 20–25 per kg — barely above production costs of Tk 15–20 per kg — while traders able to pay storage costs hold volumes for the off-season, when retail prices in Dhaka have in past years climbed several-fold. Offloading produce on roads is the blunt symptom of that gap between harvest-time surpluses and year-round demand.
At BARI, the president also called for better incentives for farmers, modern preservation and processing technology and improved facilities for agricultural researchers, with Agriculture Minister Mohammed Amin Ur Rashid, BARI Director General Md Manjurul Kadir and BRRI Director General Md Rafiqul Islam in attendance. The political signal is clear; what remains open is whether cold-storage capacity, financing and private investment follow quickly enough to keep the next northern harvest off the roadsides.
Sources: The Business Standard; Bangladesh Pratidin; New Age; The Business Standard (food waste study); Prothom Alo.
