SYLHET, Aug 26: The Food Department yet to achieve their target of procuring paddy in the Sylhet division when the farmers at grassroots were eagerly interested to supply their produce to the government.
So far 25,097 tonnes of paddy have been purchased in the division till Sunday against the targeted 36,807 tonnes, an official admitted.
It includes 4,613 tonnes in Sylhet, 3,598 tonens in Moulvibazar, 6,058 tonnes in Habiganj and highest 10,829 tonnes in Sunamganj.
As the food department delayed buying paddy, the farmers were compelled to sell their produce to the middlemen, alleged president of the citizens' forum 'Haor Banchao, Sunamganj Banchao' Bazlul Mazid Chowdhury.
Besides, they were more interested in buying rice from millers at high price, he said, adding, it gave no benefit to the farmers. "If we fail to protect the growers' interest, the paddy production would go down next season."
The government failed buying even 1.0 per cent of the paddy this season in the highest Boro producing region-Sunamganj. The 350,000 farmers in the district produced about 1.2 million tonnes of paddy during the last Boro season.
However, the rice procurement is going well, official and other sources informed. So far 26,242 tonnes of parboiled rice against a target of 30,231 tonnes and 24,744 tonnes of non-boiled rice had been procured against targeted 35,093 tonnes through the millers.
A number of farmers, however, alleged the officials were much interested in buying rice from millers for mysterious reasons whereas farmers failed to get due response from the food department officials.
Haor O Poribesh Andolan president Kahsmir Reza said, "We had to raise the demand in districts and upazials for preferring the farmers since they had been worst sufferers due to the fall in paddy prices after a good yield. But even then the situation didn't change much."
Different reasons are there for the slow progress, an official said. Poor storage facility on the government depots in upazilas alongside lack of interest among a section of officials in buying paddy from farmers are the major ones, he admitted.
It may be stated that the food department is purchasing rice from the 514 contracted millers. Of them 49 are contracted for parboiled rice and 465 for Atap rice.
The official admitted slow progress in paddy purchase for different reasons although there has been a huge demand from common farmers.
Although the food department had a target of only 13,803 tonnes of paddy to be bought from the farmers, it had to be raised by 23,004 tonnes in the face of large scale demand from the social activists and farmers.
The activists however, alleged a smallr number of farmers had been listed so that they could sell paddy to the government where as the millers had been contracted for larger supply of rice at higher rates only to benefit the businesses.
On the other hand, the common farmers were compelled to sell out their produce in local markets at lower price even below the production cost.
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