The government decided on Wednesday to procure a total of 0.85 million (08 lakh 50 thousand) tonnes of rice and paddy during the current Aman season.
The procurement will start in the first week of November.
As per the decision, 0.2 million tonnes of Aman paddy will be purchased directly from the farmers at a rate Tk 26 per kilogram (kg).
Besides, 0.6 million tonnes of parboiled rice at a rate of Tk 37 per kg and 50,000 tonnes of sun-dried rice at a rate of Tk 36 a kg will also be procured from the internal sources or the millers.
The Food Planning and Monitoring Unit which is under the ministry of food (MoF) at a virtual meeting on the day took the decision on procurement of Aman paddy and rice.
Agriculture minister Dr Mohammad Abdur Razzaque, commerce minister Tipu Munshi, health and family welfare minister Zahid Malik and state minister for disaster management and relief Dr Md Enamur Rahman also participated in the Webinar.
After the meeting, food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said that paddy procurement will start on November 07 while rice from 15th of the same month. He said the procurement drive will continue until the end of February next.
He said that the government had decided to procure Aman paddy along with rice to ensure that the farmers get a reasonable price of their produce.
The government had used to purchase only Aman rice in the past. But considering the interests of the farmers, the government had started to procure Aman paddy along with rice from the last season, according to the MoF.
The government had procured 0.6 million tonnes of paddy at a rate of Tk 26 per kg, over 0.33 million tonnes of parboiled rice at a rate of Tk 36 per kg, and 43,401 tonnes of sun-dried rice at a rate of Tk 35 a kg during the last Aman season.
The present food stock in the government silos is over one million tonnes, according to the MoF.
Food secretary Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum moderated the virtual meeting that was also attended by high officials of the ministries.
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