Govt drops Aman procurement plan

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FE Report
The government has, for the first time, dropped the plan to procure any food-grain during the current Aman season. Rather, it has decided to maintain the country's food-grain supply through imports.
Such unprecedented decision was taken Monday at the meeting of Food Planning and Monitoring Committee (FPMC), which was held at the Secretariat with the food, disaster management and relief minister Abdur Razzak in the chair.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Agriculture Minister Begum Motia Chowdhury, Commerce Minister Faruk Khan, Cabinet Secretary M Abdul Aziz, Finance Secretary Mohammad Tareque and senior officials of relevant ministries and were present at the meeting.
"We have decided not to purchase any food-grains - rice and paddy - this Aman season," Dr. Razzak told newsmen after the FPMC meeting.
The food minister, however, ruled out any possibility of any adverse impact on the rice prices in the domestic market because of the decision.
The move has been made in anticipation that fixation of higher procurement rate might push the rice prices up in the local market, he observed.
The government's present 'better food-grains stock' has also prompted the FPMC to drop the Aman procurement drive, he added.
Responding to a query, the food minister said: "The committee will launch Aman purchase drive any time if problem arises in the domestic rice market, caused by the decision."
The FPMC has decided to do away with the Aman collection drive taking the government's overall food stock and expected import into consideration, Dr. Razzak said.
Currently, the government has nearly 0.80 million tonnes of food-grains stock, of which about 0.6 million tonnes are rice and 0.2 million tonnes wheat while imports of 0.8 million of food-grains are in the pipeline.
"Hopefully, there will be no shortage in the government's food-grains supply to maintain its overall food operations until the harvest of next Boro crop," the food minister said.
Apart from the existing programmes like the vulnerable group feeding (VGF), Kajerbinimoye Khadda Karmochhuchu (KABIKHA) and open market sales (OMS), the government has planned to widen further the safety-net schemes.
In this backdrop, the FPMC in its meeting has advised the authorities to make a 'working paper' for enhancing the activities under the government's food rationing and 'fair price card' programmes, he said.
Responding to a query, the food minister said the prospect for current Aman crop is 'good' as the filed-level information suggests that the country is expected to achieve the production target of 13.5 million tonnes of the variety this season.
About the government's target of achieving self-sufficiency in food-grain production by 2013, the food minister said its consumption has increased significantly.
The country produces about 0.9 to 1.0 million tonnes of wheat annually against its requirement at 3.0 million to 4.0 million tonnes.
When asked, the minister said the production cost for Aman rice has been estimated at Tk 21.42 per kg and that of paddy for nearly Tk 15 at the growers' levels.
The government is importing rice at Tk 35 per kg while the import cost for one kg of wheat is about Tk 24, he mentioned.
The government is importing food-grains at higher rates for supplying those to local market, especially to the poorer segment of people, at subsidised prices.
In the last Aman season, the government set the targets of purchasing 0.2 million tonnes of rice and 0.15 million tonnes of paddy for the year's procurement drive.
Of the target, the food department procured 162,976 tonnes of Aman crop.