A group of tech-savvy youths have created several e-commerce platforms aimed at helping farmers get a fair price for their produce and also to give consumers the opportunity to buy fresh and unadulterated food items.
The core idea of the initiative is to promote products of rural farmers by creating a platform to sell their produce directly to consumers at a fair price.
The middlemen and the buyers are known for making a hefty profit by exploiting farmers into selling their crops at a much lower price compared to the retail market price.
The farmers till now did not have a platform to showcase their safe food products, such as vegetables, fruits and fish. They needed an outlet where they can get a fair price, which is quite rare in Dhaka.
Meanwhile, the consumers are always on the hunt for fresh and chemical free products at a reasonable price, amid concerns over adulterated food.
“I was frantically searching for safe and chemical free food products like eggs, vegetables and fruits for my child. The search was difficult and I had become frustrated,” Safiqul Alom, a senior officer at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said: “I had to bring unadulterated fruits and vegetables from my village home to Dhaka and it was a difficult task.”
Safiqul’s dilemma was solved on a fateful day when he learned about the Facebook based e-commerce Prakritik Krishi Biponon Kendro.
The online marketplace sells fresh produce collected directly from the farmers and the showcased agro-products are free of pesticides and chemical fertilisers.
“There is a huge demand for naturally grown agricultural products. However, the farmers were not getting fair prices for their products, compared to the crops cultivated with chemical fertilisers and pesticide,” Delowar Jahan, coordinator of Prakritik Krishi Biponon Kendro, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Delwar took the initiative to create an e-commerce platform in 2014 where farmers can sell their naturally grown agro-products directly to the customers.
Before the inception of the e-commerce platform, farmers rarely had the opportunity to set the price for their products. The advent of online platforms has given the farmers a way to negotiate the prices of goods directly with the customers.
The prices are set based on the production cost and a reasonable profit margin is also taken into consideration.
A farmer told the Dhaka Tribune: “By selling my products online, I am getting a higher price compared to the traditional market. I can get Tk5 to Tk15 more per kg by selling different products.
“There is no alternative to directly buying fresh food from farmers. So, the consumers are willing to pay more.”
The online marketplace, amardesheshop.com, is another example of a farmer and consumer friendly e-commerce platform.
“We have created a marketplace for the farmers from where a consumer can order his/her desired products. The products are then delivered to their homes,” Ataur Rahman, owner of amardesheshop, said.
Ataur confirmed that the firm does not store agro products in warehouses. When an order is placed, the product is collected directly from the farmer after a thorough quality check and then it is delivered to the client.
Through this initiative, amardesheshop.com has managed to bring a good number of farmers from different districts across Bangladesh under a common platform.
The e-commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) President Razib Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune: “We need to use tech-savvy people to train the farmers so that they can use the online platforms better.”
Razib said: “Sometimes the farmers suffer losses by saturating the market with a particular product because of not having access to market information.”
“The middlemen and the buyers usually use this opportunity to buy the goods at lower price. A farmer who knows how to use the internet can easily avoid such losses,” he added.
A proper government initiative can transform the agricultural industry for the better, by using e-commerce as a platform for both the farmers and the consumers.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
