FBD Desk:

Farmers are deprived of a fair price for their paddy due to the lower procurement price under the government’s procurement drive.

The price offered by the government during the Aman season has raised doubts about whether the authorities will be able to meet the public stock-building target for paddy.

The government has set a target to procure three lakh metric tonnes of Aman paddy and 5 lakh MT of boiled rice in the current season.

An inter-ministerial meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee (FPMC) on November 1 fixed the procurement price for Aman paddy at Tk 28 per kg and boiled rice at Tk 42 per kg.

According to the government procurement price, Aman paddy is priced at Tk 1120 per mound (40 kg). However, farmers are selling newly harvested paddy for Tk 1200-Tk 1350 per maund (40 kg) in different parts of the country.

According to farmers, government paddy prices only cover a fraction of their production costs.

Atikur Rahman, a farmer from Pakerhat of KhansamaUpazila of Dinajpur, said he sold his newly harvested Aman paddy for Tk 1250 per mound (40 kg) while the government procurement price is Tk 1120.

Farmers will sell not their paddy to the government at a lower price if they can get a higher price locally, he said.

The government’s rice procurement process started on November 17 and continues till February 28 across the country.

Another farmer, ShujaUdDowla from Ramnagar union in NilphamariSadar, said farmers were not interested in selling paddy to the government because they are getting high prices on the open market. RaihanulKabir Director (Procurement Division) at the Directorate General of Food said the Aman paddy procurement has started partially in some areas of the country, but will be in full swing soon after paddy harvesting was completed.

“In the local market at this stage, the price of Aman paddy is high, but it will decline gradually as harvesting begins in full swing and a huge amount of paddy is produced,” he said.

During the last Boro collection season, the government procured 2.62 lakh tonnes of paddy against a target of 6.50 lakh tonnes.

For this reason, farmers didn’t show much interest in selling paddy to the government during the season. The government bought Boro paddy at Tk 1,080 per mound, but the open market price rose higher than that.