Staff Correspondent:

Despite a 9.0 per cent hike in procurement rates, the government’s ongoing ‘Boro’ purchase drive is progressing in a slow pace with traders attribute the situation to higher grains prices at open market and lack of proper purchase mechanism.

The government began its Boro procurement drive on April 24 with a target of collecting 1.75 million tonnes of rice and paddy during this season.

The Directorate General of Food (DGoF) has planned to buy 1.4 million tonnes of parboiled rice at Tk 49 a kg and 0.35 million tonnes of paddy at Tk 36 a kg.

So far, the DGoF has been able to procure only 0.16 million tonnes of rice and a 6,000 tonnes of paddy, it was learnt.

In the past two and a half weeks, it was expected that at least 250,000 tonnes would be procured to stay on track for meeting the target by August 31, said a DGoF official.

Market insiders, however, observed that the increased procurement prices might have been attracted millers, but farmers still remain reluctant to sell their harvest.

Value chain expert Mohammad Muzibul Hoque that production costs of rice have surged by at least 20 per cent this season as farmers had to purchase fertiliser and other inputs considerably higher rates than the government-fixed prices.

Blaming the government’s procurement mechanism, he said it hardly benefits the local farmers.

“Under its procurement drive, the DGoF collects paddy with having moisture contamination at below 15 per cent, which is extremely difficult for farmers to maintain without proper drying facilities,” he said.

Mr Hoque suggested that the government should consider purchasing wet paddy directly from farmers and storing it in farm households to enhance their participation in the procurement drive.

Mentioning that that the government’s procurement drives allow collect rice only from millers, he stressed the need for changing such strategy so that farmers are able to sell the same to the DGoF.

According to the expert, the government’s stock position remains relatively comfortable following imports of about 1.1 million tonnes of rice through both the public and private channels.

Fulfillment of the boro procurement target would help keep the country’s food security at comfortable level, he observed.

TM Rashed Khan, Assistant Director at the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM), said newly harvested coarse paddy is being sold at Tk 1,100-1,150 a maund (40 kg) in haor regions and Tk 1,250-1,300 in the plains.

Prices of medium-quality BRRI Dhan-28 and finer Jeerashail varieties are ranging between Tk 1,350 and Tk 1,450 a maund, said the DAM official.

He said that growers’ level prices of paddy remain 10-15 per cent higher than that of the last year as millers and their affiliated traders are competing aggressively to procure paddy in advance.

Md Moniruzzaman, Director of Procurement at the DGoF, hinted at the possibility of gathering momentum in the official food-grain procurement drive within the next couple of weeks as many millers are still in the process of husking paddy.

“Our aim is to ensure farmers’ fair prices,” he said.

“We’ve increased the paddy price by Tk 3.0 per kg this year. Based on the latest market reports, it seems farmers are currently making profits from the mainstream market.”

He expressed the hope that a good harvest of boro crop coupled with an increased volume of imported varieties would help prevent any possible supply shortage of the staple. Currently, public warehouses have total stock of 1.0 million tonnes of rice, which is expected to grow steadily.

SM Nazer Hossain, Vice President of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), that despite arrival of new harvest, rice prices still remain abnormally high in the open market.

“Prices of coarse rice reached an all-time high of Tk 60-62 per kg in Dhaka and Chattogram this year,” he said.

He urged the government to closely monitor to protect poor consumers from exorbitant rice prices.