Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday reiterated her government’s commitment to ensuring fair price of crops and other agricultural products in the interest of the farmers. “The farmers-friendly Awami League government has taken various initiatives to ensure fair price of crops produced by the farmers and it will continue these programmes in the future,” she told the House while replying to a starred question placed by treasury bench member Md Shahiduzzaman Sarkar (Naogaon-2).
To ensure the fair price of food grains, the prime minister said, the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee of the government fixes the prices of food grains (rice, paddy and wheat) with 10-15 percent profit on production cost, considering the interest of farmers. To this end, she said, the government in 2019 decided to procure wheat per kg at Tk 28, while Boro and Aman paddy per kg at Tk 26, boiled rice per kg at Tk 36 and non-boiled rice per at Tk 35.
The Leader of the House said the government set a target of procuring 4.11 lakh metric tons of rice and about 4 lakh MT of paddy during the last Boro season, while it collected around 15.5 lakh metric tonnes of food grains, including 4 lakh MT of paddy and about 10 lakh MT of boiled rice against the target.
Sheikh Hasina said the present government has taken an initiative, for the first time, to procure Aman paddy directly from the farmers. “We’ve planned to procure 6,26,991 MT of Aman paddy directly from peasants fixing the price of paddy at Tk 1,040 per maund and 3,84,702 tonnes of rice from the millers,” she said.
The premier said food grains are being collected every year from internal sources aiming to ensure the fair price of crops the farmers produce. She said the government has taken an initiative to set up 200 silos across the country with the capacity of 5,000 MT each to store paddy directly collected from the farmers.
“Another initiative has been taken to build seven modern rice mills with drying facility of paddy,” she added. Sheikh Hasina said the government has planned to set up storages in different parts of the country aiming to preserve and process vegetables. A “Farmers’ Market” has already been established at ‘Sech Bhaban’ beside the city’s Manik Mia Avenue to ensure fair price of agri products , she said, adding the market remains open on Friday and Saturday.
Besides, the Leader of the House said, the government is now setting up 30 more farmers’ markets in different parts of the country. A total 18 assemble centres were set up in the country’s northwestern and southern regions for proper marketing of crops and other agricultural products, she added.
