Govt to procure rice at Tk 40 a kg

The government has increased prices for the procurement of paddy and rice for the next Aman season.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder announced the new price at a virtual meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit on Sunday.

The government would procure per kilogram of Aman paddy at Tk 27, per kg Aman rice at Tk 40 this season. In the previous Aman season, the government had procured per kg paddy at Tk 26 and per kg rice at Tk 36.

The government will procure 3 lakh tonnes of Aman paddy and 5 lakh tonnes of Aman rice this season and the procurement will start on November 7, according to the food ministry. The government expects that they will be able to reach the procurement target.

In the previous season, the government planned to procure 8.58 lakh tonnes of Aman paddy and rice. But the millers did not show interest to sell the foodgrains to the government.

The millers had signed an agreement with the government to provide 2 lakh tonnes of paddy then but at the end of the season, the government could procure only 10 per cent of the target. In that season, the government could procure around 80,000 tonnes of rice.

In Sunday’s meeting, the government also set price for procuring wheat at Tk 28 per kg and decided to procure 1.5 lakh tonnes of wheat from April 1.

“The government is determined to ensure a fair price for the farmers and increase the stock to ensure food safety,” food minister Sadhan Chandra said at the meeting.

The minister said that they were successful in the procurement of rice during the Boro season and now the country is enjoying its benefit.

Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzak said the due to lack of preservation facilities, a huge amount of agro-products are wasted and the farmers are deprived of the fair price. “Currently the government is working on increasing food production,” he said.

In this meeting, commerce minister Tipu Munshi said that Bangladesh was exporting several agriculture products right now. “But there is a huge chance to increase the export earnings,” he said, “To increase export, we need quality agriculture products,”