Journal of Agriculture
and Environmental Sciences

A Survey of Agricultural Value Chain: A Case Study of Bangladesh Banana Industry
Esendugue Greg Fonsah, Moukaram Tertuliano, Tanvir Manower, Somashree Chattapadhya, Arshad Hussain, Saiful Islam, Md. Serajul Islam, Md. Jasim Uddin, Ahmad Sadequl Amin, Bani Amin

Abstract
Agriculture is the backbone of Bangladeshi economy. It accounts for 17% of total Bangladeshi GDP and contributes 36% of domestic market share. This survey focuses on bananas, one of the most important and popular fruits of the country and analyzes the complete value chain (VC) functions and relationships, targeting the producers, intermediaries and consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for quality produce in three municipalities, Barisal, Faridpur, and Dhaka districts respectively. A total of 177 survey questionnaires were distributed amongst the three groups of VC key participants, out of which 130 were usable. The data collected were subjected to analysis of frequency of response using chi-square test in SAS v. 9.2 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC USA), zero responses were excluded from the statistical analyses of Chi-square. Our results show that 8% of the respondents in Barisal were willing to pay from 11-15 BDT/Kg of bananas compared to 43% in Faridpur and 49% in Dhaka. Furthermore, our result also illustrated that 100% of the farmers actually sold their bananas at prices ranging from 151-250 BDT, thus, an average price of from 193-225 BDT/bunch despite the quality of the produce. Finally, the major problems observed were lack of good agricultural practices, which affects overall quality, distribution, and marketing of this important fruit.

Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jaes.v7n1a15