Rescue plan for farmers
The government is set to buy 6 lakh tonnes of aman paddy, the highest in 24 years, from growers this harvesting season as it looks to raise the prices of the grain and help growers recoup losses.
And, the volume of paddy purchase, including boro, would be the second highest during the period, according to data from the food ministry.
The food ministry bought the highest amount of paddy in 2017 -- 6.70 lakh tonnes in the boro season.
The purchase plan of aman grain, the second biggest staple after boro, was disclosed yesterday after a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee (FPMC).
“We will start buying paddy from marginal and small farmers from November 20,” Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said after the meeting at his office.
The decision to buy higher amount of paddy comes after calls for buying the grains directly from farmers grew louder amid losses due to continuous low prices of the staple crop.
Yesterday, the prices of coarse rice were Tk 28-40 a kilogram, down 8.11 percent from a month earlier and 19 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
The food ministry estimates production of this year’s aman paddy would cost Tk 21.55 a kg, down from Tk 25.30 the previous year.
The food ministry buys paddy at Tk 26 a kg based on the list of marginal farmers to be supplied by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and scrutinised by upazila procurement committee, Majumder said.
In case the number of farmers exceeds the procurement target, lottery will be conducted, he said.
Also, 3 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice would be procured at Tk 36 each kilogram, which was the same the previous year.
And 50,000 tonnes of un-boiled rice would be bought at Tk 35 a kg, the minister said.
“We have not reduced the purchase prices of rice from the previous year,” he said.
The announcement comes nearly three weeks before farmers will start harvesting rain-fed aman paddy, which accounts for 38 percent of the annual rice output.
In the current season farmers planted paddy on 58.94 lakh hectares, which is much higher than the previous season, according to the DAE.
The decision to buy paddy has been taken so that farmers get fair prices, said Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque.
“Previously, rice was mainly purchased. But from this year we have started buying paddy at higher quantity,” he said, adding that food directorate bought 4 lakh tonnes of paddy in the immediate boro harvest.
“We have tried to buy paddy from real farmers. Even after that there might be mistakes and it happened in some cases. This time we will be more cautious,” he said, adding that monitoring would be strengthened.
Farmers cannot ensure required 14 percent moisture in paddy and they are sent back by procurement officials in the field for failure to comply with the moisture parameter, he said.
“We have decided to buy moisture meter in every union so that farmers can check the moisture level through our assistant agricultural officer there before taking their paddy to the procurement centres.”
Razzaque said it might not be possible to provide such meters in all unions during the coming aman harvesting season.
“But, we will ensure that none face hassle in selling their produce in the next boro season.”
He said his ministry also plans to send proposal to the finance ministry for reducing the prices of fertilisers to bring down the production cost of growers. At the meeting, the food minister said the government would increase the distribution period of rice at Tk 10 a kg to seven months next month to provide support to fishermen.
