The food department has intensified its 'Boro' rice procurement drive to help the government build up a buffer stock of 3.2-million tonnes of food amidst poor response from the local rice millers.
The Ministry of Food and Disaster Management recently asked the Directorate General of Food (DgoF) to gear up its ongoing procurement drive to achieve the 1.5-million tonnes target, set by the government for this Boro season, official sources said.
Such directive came after the Chief Adviser's Office recently asked the senior officials of Ministry of Food and Disaster Management to take necessary steps for making the Boro procurement drive a success, they mentioned.
The CAO, concerned by the slow trend in procurement of Boro crop, also advised the ministry for raising the foodgrain collection to at least 0.8 million tonnes by June 30, said an official.
The government has set the target of procuring 1.2 million tonnes of rice and 0.3 million tonnes of paddy during the current Boro season. The procurement drive is to continue until August 31, 2008.
But the food department has collected about 465,000 tonnes of rice, the official said, adding that it has so far signed deals with rice millers on the procurement of 650,000 tonnes of rice.
According to officials, the authorities are finding themselves in a difficult situation to raise the collection of Boro crop at the expected level following a mismatch between the prices fixed for official procurement drive and those prevailing in the open market.
Although the government has enhanced the procurement price of rice this year by 55 per cent to Tk 28 a kilogram (kg) from last year's price, the ruling market price of newly harvested rice is Tk 3.0 to Tk 4.0 per kg higher.
The price of Boro paddy has also been increased to Tk 18 per kg from the last year's price of Tk 11 per kg in a bid to help achieve the government's procurement target, but the official rate is considerably below the open market prices, sources said.
"Due to the price gaps, both the farmers and rice millers are reluctant to sell rice and paddy to the government," said an official.
Besides, a section of rice millers and wholesale traders are learnt to have started hoarding rice, hoping that the prices would go up further in the coming months, the official observed.
Sources, however, said if the current Boro collection drive faces any setback, it would be difficult for the government to build up the food stock at the desired level.
The government has planned to distribute at least 3.0 million tonnes of food under various programmers including open market sales, Food for Work, Vulnerable Group Feeding, Vulnerable Group Development, Test Relief and Gratuitous Relief for the fiscal year 2008-09.
Against this backdrop, it has a plan to procure about 3.2 million tonnes of food grains - rice and wheat - for the purposes, officials said.
