Nilphamari farmers frustrated over govt’s paddy, rice purchasing procedure

NILPHAMARI, July 07: Farmers in the district are frustrated over the government's Boro paddy procurement activities as the authorities concerned are purchasing the crop through allegedly manipulated lottery.

Farmers this year fell in trouble due to lower price of paddy that does not even cover the production cost. Presently, paddy is being sold at a price of Tk 400 per maund in the markets while the production cost is nearly Tk 450 per maund.

District Controller (DC) of Food office sources said government's Boro rice and paddy procurement drive that started earlier will continue up to August 31 this year.

Initially Boro paddy and rice procurement target was fixed at 2,612 tonnes and 17,959 tonnes respectively and procurement price for paddy is fixed at Tk 26 per kg and rice at Tk 36 per kg.

Sources said despite procurement of rice and paddy the price of paddy fell substantially that created agony among the farmers.

Under the circumstances and as demanded by the growers, government started procuring paddy for the second time directly from the growers. This time in the second phase the DC Food office would procure 4,254 tonnes of paddy at the same rate through lottery system.

In the second phase rice would not be procured at all.

Each card holder selected through lottery is allowed to sale only 10 maunds of paddy to their respective local supply depot.

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