Import of foodgrains, especially rice, amid successive good harvests, poses the all-important question of how thoughtful the government is about allowing, albeit encouraging, it. Around nine hundred thousand tonnes of rice were imported in little over eight months during July 2014 to the first week of March 2015, despite a significant stock of nearly one million tonnes. This is difficult to reason out. While increased import of rice, on the one hand, is not in harmony with its plentiful production, the situation is rendered still more perplexing by export of rice, on the other hand. The government has started exporting rice to Sri Lanka and is almost set to export to India as well. As part of a contract for export of 50,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka, the government, in two phases, has already shipped out 25,000 tonnes. According to food ministry sources, it is presently working on an Indian proposal for export of 30,000 tonnes of rice.
In the light of such a state of things, it seems bumper harvest of rice for successive seasons have left no impact on the country's rice scenario. Following the good Aman harvest, the upcoming Boro is likely to experience bumper harvest too. Expecting a bounteous Boro crop, food department officials have already expressed their concerns that they may not be able to sell out the stock in time to procure fresh rice. The food minister reportedly told the cabinet the other day that as a result of a dip in the local rice market caused by mounting imports, government's Food for Works Programme (FWP) is not attracting workers to barter their labour for rice. This, as reports say, has been caused by import of rice from India in large quantities in the past months.
Indeed, increased imports of rice appear to negate the claim of self-reliance that the government has been drumming up for quite some time. However, since this in reality is not the case, it is the farmers who are to bear the brunt of low prices in the domestic market. Aman output this year has hit an all-time high of 13.19 million tonnes. The country's Aman and Aus output is potentially capable of curbing import of rice. But this has not happened as the government prevailed upon the natural course of demand-supply situation by, what most observers term, unnecessary imports. The imported rice is of the low-end, coarse variety, and one rationale could be to stockpile this variety for consumption of the low-income groups. Import cost of the coarse variety from India is Tk 26-Tk 26.50 a kg and that is being retailed at Tk 28-Tk 29, while the equivalent local variety is selling at Tk 30-Tk 31 a kg in the local market. The critical question is now: has there been any dearth of the coarse variety in the country? If not, the imported shipments have predictably dampened the domestic rice market to the misery of the farmers. Understandably, this disincentive, despite bumper production and improved methods of cultivation, would have a serious repercussion on overall pattern of paddy cultivation in the country.
