The government has decided to buy more 250,000 tonnes of rice from farmers amid a public outcry over falling prices in the domestic market.
Falling rice prices are linked to two factors this time: the good harvest of the Boro crop and a glut of imported rice. “We’ll buy more rice from the farmers as per the prime minister’s instruction,” Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said at a news briefing at the Secretariat on Tuesday.
If the latest measures fail to improve the situation, the quantity of rice procurement will be increased further to help ensure fair prices to the farmers, he said. “The paddy will be bought at Tk 26 per kg. The government has so far managed to procure 30,000 MT of paddy from farmers. Paddy won’t be bought for the second time from the farmers enlisted by the Agriculture Department,” the minister said.
Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzak who was also present at the press conference said, “The government will increase the procurement from 4, 00,000 tonnes to 2/1 tonnes further, if necessary.” “The Prime Minister is very concerned at the low price of paddy. Yesterday, the Prime Minister said profit has to be ensured for framers within the shortest possible time and for that we’ll buy more paddy from them,” Dr Razzak said.
The ongoing food grain procurement programme which started on April 25 will continue till August 31. Earlier, farmers at different parts of the country staged protests in different ways demanding fair prices of their produce as they have been counting huge losses. Students of different educational institutions of different parts of the country also had helped farmers harvest their paddy to minimize their losses.
Mill owners are reportedly buying maximum rice at lower prices in haor areas. The production cost of per maund of rice, including the labourer cost, is said to be Tk 1,000 while its selling price is only Tk 550 to Tk 750 at the local market.