'Aman' procurement drive fails to achieve target
S M Jahangir | Tuesday, 10 March 2009
The government missed its internal food-grain procurement target for the last Aman season primarily due to shortage of storage capacity, amid positive response from suppliers.
"Despite receiving good response from the private suppliers, the authorities had to conclude the 'Aman' procurement drive without meeting the official target," said an official.
The food department procured 162,976 tonnes of Aman crop by the February 28 deadline against the official target of 200,000 tonnes, the ministry sources said.
They, however, said that storage space constraint was one of the major causes of the procurement shortfall.
Unlike previous occasions, local millers were keen to supply rice to the government in the just conceded Aman procurement drive mainly because of better procurement rates.
"As the official procurement prices of both rice and paddy were considerably higher than that from open markets, millers preferred selling their rice to the government," said an official.
The government launched its Aman procurement drive from November 25, fixing the prices of rice and paddy at Tk 26 and Tk 16 per kilogramme (kg) respectively.
An adequate supply triggered by a record harvest of the local Aman crop pushed down the rice price to about Tk 20-Tk 22 per kg at the growers' level from previous Tk 30 to 35, sources said.
But the authorities failed to avail themselves of the better responses from the rice millers due mainly to lack of storage facilities, they observed.
The government is now able to stock a maximum of 1.25 million tonnes of food-grain in its existing godowns, a food ministry official said, adding all the official godowns are almost full either with food grains or empty sacks (rice bags).
Taking the insufficient storage capacity into account, the government is planning to build some new warehouses for doubling its existing food-grain stock in order to cope with any possible crisis in the country, a senior official of the Food and Disaster Ministry said.
Keeping this end in view, the government has already initiated talks with development partners for setting up more food-godowns in the country's important points, the official said, adding the government of Japan has already pledged US$ 30 million for the initiative.
Under the initiative, a good number of new food godowns are to be set up in northern region -- the country's major food-grain growing zone.
Official sources said the present 'inadequate' storage capacity has prompted the government to initiate the move to set up some new warehouses.
The government has a plan to enhance its food-grains storage capacity to nearly 3.0 million tonnes for helping the country face any food deficit, officials sources said.
It needs to increase it food stock not only for meeting any possible shortage, but also for widening its food operations, especially under various safety-net programmes including Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF), Test Relief (TR), Kajer Binimoye Khaddya Karmoshuchi (KABIKHA), they observed.
"Despite receiving good response from the private suppliers, the authorities had to conclude the 'Aman' procurement drive without meeting the official target," said an official.
The food department procured 162,976 tonnes of Aman crop by the February 28 deadline against the official target of 200,000 tonnes, the ministry sources said.
They, however, said that storage space constraint was one of the major causes of the procurement shortfall.
Unlike previous occasions, local millers were keen to supply rice to the government in the just conceded Aman procurement drive mainly because of better procurement rates.
"As the official procurement prices of both rice and paddy were considerably higher than that from open markets, millers preferred selling their rice to the government," said an official.
The government launched its Aman procurement drive from November 25, fixing the prices of rice and paddy at Tk 26 and Tk 16 per kilogramme (kg) respectively.
An adequate supply triggered by a record harvest of the local Aman crop pushed down the rice price to about Tk 20-Tk 22 per kg at the growers' level from previous Tk 30 to 35, sources said.
But the authorities failed to avail themselves of the better responses from the rice millers due mainly to lack of storage facilities, they observed.
The government is now able to stock a maximum of 1.25 million tonnes of food-grain in its existing godowns, a food ministry official said, adding all the official godowns are almost full either with food grains or empty sacks (rice bags).
Taking the insufficient storage capacity into account, the government is planning to build some new warehouses for doubling its existing food-grain stock in order to cope with any possible crisis in the country, a senior official of the Food and Disaster Ministry said.
Keeping this end in view, the government has already initiated talks with development partners for setting up more food-godowns in the country's important points, the official said, adding the government of Japan has already pledged US$ 30 million for the initiative.
Under the initiative, a good number of new food godowns are to be set up in northern region -- the country's major food-grain growing zone.
Official sources said the present 'inadequate' storage capacity has prompted the government to initiate the move to set up some new warehouses.
The government has a plan to enhance its food-grains storage capacity to nearly 3.0 million tonnes for helping the country face any food deficit, officials sources said.
It needs to increase it food stock not only for meeting any possible shortage, but also for widening its food operations, especially under various safety-net programmes including Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF), Test Relief (TR), Kajer Binimoye Khaddya Karmoshuchi (KABIKHA), they observed.