Most people remained engrossed with the political developments centring round the recently held 10th parliamentary elections. Never before, had the nation witnessed so much violence involving any political issue. For nearly a couple of months capital Dhaka remained cut-off from the rest of the country by road; the rail communication limped and the economy bled in an unprecedented manner.
However, the 10th parliamentary election was held on January 05 last, triggering lots of controversies both at home and abroad. An apparent normalcy has returned with the installation of a new government that is carrying the legacy of the past. But worries remain since no lasting solution is in sight to the pressing political issue that had triggered violence.
When all the political developments were taking place, nobody noticed the gradual lengthening of the queues before the trucks selling government rice at fair price at different parts of the city. Even a couple of months back, there were a few buyers of such rice for the people found it not economically profitable to spend time in the queues to fetch government rice. But over the last two months the situation has changed. One the one hand the poor people, mostly daily wage earners, are now finding it hard to get work regularly and, on the other, the price of coarse rice has increased substantially, even after a good aman harvest this year.
There is a growing fear that the disruptions caused to the normal economic activities across the country by violent politics for more than two months, starting from the early part of November last, have either stopped or reversed the process of lifting people above the poverty line. Experts tend to believe that squeezing of employment opportunities during the prolonged political troubles has thrown many people back into the poverty trap. However, it is difficult to know the extent of the damage without a countrywide household survey. Yet it is almost certain that an unspecified number of people have again embraced poverty and their coming out of the poverty-trap would not be that easy. Moreover, some more people have apparently become vulnerable to the process of pauperisation.
In such a situation, the hike in prices of coarse rice, usually consumed by the poorer section of people, to the extent of 20 per cent over a period of one year has only made their life more difficult.
But this should not have been the case particularly when the production of aman was very good on the back of a favourable weather conditions. Traders are blaming at least two factors--- disruption in road communications and hike in diesel prices---for the increase in prices of the main staple. With the discontinuation of disruptive political programmes by the main opposition BNP, all sorts of communications by road, rail and waterways are now back to normal. But the prices of rice have recorded a rise during the last few days.
Farmers, who have been complaining about the rice price situation for the last couple of years, must be happy now. But are they? Or, instead of them, are some people else reaping the benefit as usual? Â
The increase in prices of rice, it seems, is someway linked to the recent upsurge in import of the commodity by the private sector. Taking advantage of very comfortable international price situation, the private sector importers procured nearly 200,000 tonnes of rice during the past six and a half months when they imported a paltry 25,000 tonnes of rice during the entire 2012-13 financial year.
Interestingly, the government, unlike the private sector traders, has not been interested to exploit the prevailing favourable food price situation in the international market despite the fact that its own food reserve has gone down considerably over the last one year. Between July 01, 2012 and January 15, 2013, the government has imported only 1,000 tonnes of rice!
As of January 15 last, the total food reserve of the government was 942,000 tonnes including 700,000 tonnes of rice. A year back the reserve was 1.3 million tonnes, including 1.1 million tonnes of rice.
Besides, for reasons best known to the Ministry of Food, the procurement target for Aman season has been set at only 200,000 tonnes of rice only at Tk 30 per kg. Until January 15 last, 125,000 tonnes of rice were procured and it is most likely the target would be achieved easily.
There are reasons to believe that the rice prices would continue to maintain the current high level for some more time since the same would benefit the private importers at the cost of consumers. Unfortunately, the poorer section of society will be the prime victim.
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Of politics, poverty and rice price
Shamsul Huq Zahid | Published: January 20, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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