Background:
Bangladesh does not produce any active ingredients, it only imports and formulates. The marketing channel of pesticides in Bangladesh consists of pesticide companies, distributors, wholesalers, wholesaler-cum-retailers, retailers and farmers (Sabur and Moila, 2000). At the top, there exist approximately 66 officially registered companies, with 6 of these being multinational in nature. Distributors buy almost all of their products from pesticide companies. However, the pesticide companies also directly sell to wholesalers. Distributors, in turn, sell their products to the wholesalers-cum-retailers, retailers and large farmers. Wholesalers sell to retailers as well as farmers. Retailers, in turn, sell their product to farmers, but farmers frequently buy directly from the distributors as well as wholesalers.
Survey Design:
The survey, conducted in the summer 2003 by the World Bank, interviewed 110 pesticide traders (more or less equally divided between wholesalers and retailers) across 7 districts of Bangladesh. The survey collected detailed information from traders, including: 1) the name, location and nature of the shop; 2) trader’s characteristic: age, ownership, nutritional status: weight/height; 3) pesticide log & sales: trade name, chemical name, content quantity, price, best selling pesticides; 4) traders’ knowledge of pesticides: information and training received on use and safe handling of pesticides; 5) precautions and damage averting behavior; and 6) health effects. The survey was designed and supervised by the World Bank team, and conducted by the Development Policy Group in Bangladesh. To minimize reporting bias, the survey was implemented under the agreement that the team would not reveal the identity of the trader companies surveyed on the respondents who participated.
