SYLHET, Sept 02: As the Food Department was unable to achieve the target of procuring paddy and rice from the Sylhet division by the deadline ending on August 31, they have been give a fortnight's extension.
So far, 31,296 tonnes of paddy have been purchased in the division till Sunday against the target of 36,807 tonnes, an official told this correspondent on Monday.
It includes 5,659 tonnes in Sylhet, 3,850 tonnes in Moulvibazar, 7,542 tonnes in Habiganj and highest 14,244 tonnes in Sunamganj.
There were allegations that the farmers at grassroots 'were not welcome' at the food depots as the officials tried to avoid them on the excuse of substandard quality of paddy.
Often the farmers are denied for 'high moisture content' in paddy, alleged a number of farmers who wanted to sell their produce there.
Many farmers became disappointed from the upazila purchasing centres, alleged Habibur Rahman of Shulla upazila. Most of the farmers had to sell their produce to the 'farias' recently at a lower price, he said.
President of the citizens' forum 'Haor banchao, Sunamganj banchao' Bazlul Mazid Chowdhury said the government had to raise its target of paddy procurement target in the face of farmers' pressure.
Since the farmers' interest is not protected by ensuring minimum price, they would reduce paddy production in the coming seasons, alleged a number of farmers in Sylhet. It may happen mainly for the frustrating price for consecutive seasons.
Farmers groups alleged further, the government failed to purchase even one per cent of the paddy this season in the highest Boro producing region-Sunamganj. About 350,000 farmers in the district produced about 1.2 million tonnes of paddy during the last Boro season.
In the same way the rice procurement also was not successful as yet.
So far 29,256 tonnes of parboiled rice against a target of 33,231 tonnes and 28,715 tonnes of non-boiled rice had been procured against the targeted 35,093 tonnes through the contract millers.
Different groups of farmers' right protection raised the demands at district and upazilas for preferring the growers interest since they had been worst sufferers due to the fall in paddy price despite a good yield in the region.
However, an official in the food department said the procurement is close to the target.
Generally, higher targets are set for a better performance, he added.
Besides, different reasons were there for the slow procurement process, he said. Poor storage facility on the government depots on upazilas was a major reason, he claimed.
The food department has been purchasing rice from the 514 contracted millers. Of them 49 are contracted for parboiled rice and 465 for Atap rice.
Although the food department had initial 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 high demand from the social activists and farmers.
They social activists, however, alleged poor number of farmers were listed so that they could sell paddy to the government whereas the millers had been contracted for larger supply of rice at higher rates only to benefit the businesses.
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