Salim Moshiur, Comilla (South)

As the main agricultural region of the district, the greater Laksam upazila in the southern part has currently developed into a large agricultural product market as an import and export factor area. Although small and medium-sized industrial factories have been established in various upazilas of this region, no one has established any industrial institution for the welfare of the poor farmers.

Several farmers in the southern part of the district said that although a large number of local industrialists are residents of this region, due to their lack of sincerity and initiative, no institution like cold storage has been established in this region to store agricultural produce, and therefore several lakhs of farmer families in this region are suffering financially in marketing those products.

However, although there are 2 cold storages in Lalmai upazila of the district, there are no other 5 upazilas, so there is no end to the problem of storing agricultural produce. Farmers in this region are facing various crises in the agricultural market.

Sources further said that although the farming community of this region has come a long way in the current era of information technology in various business fields, the agricultural industry has not been able to expand. Local farmers face unbearable hardships in the winter season due to the lack of cold storage for storing agricultural products. In different seasons, it is seen that the farmers of this region produce a large amount of surplus agricultural products, but due to the lack of storage, those products are on the verge of spoiling and they have to pay lakhs of taka and they have to calculate the loss by selling them at a price lower than the cost of production. If cold storage is established at the government or private level for the sake of preserving agricultural products, the farming community of this region would have benefited a lot if they could store their agricultural products in the cold storage and sell them at a convenient time instead of selling them at the current market price, and the government would also have an easy way to earn a huge amount of revenue.

Another source of agricultural traders in the southern part of the district said that due to lack of protection, farmers often have to pile up their agricultural products in the markets of the upazilas under the open sky, and at times they get wet in the hot sun and rain, and the agricultural products are spoiled and used as cow fodder.

It is necessary to set up multiple cold storages in this region to protect agricultural products. But there is no government allocation for this project. If the local rich and industrialists of this region invested in this project, it would bring enough success to their business profits and keep the farmers' products in stock.

Specially the rural economy would become stronger.

In this regard, it was not possible to get a statement from several officials of the district and upazila agriculture and industry departments and other departments concerned despite repeated attempts on their mobile phones.