Building food security

Almost uninterrupted good production of food grains in the country for the last couple of years has contributed mightily to the food security of the country. The current yields of Boro rice crops have been no different. According to media reports as well as official sources, the production of Boro rice crop -- specially in the northern regions considered as the granary of the country -- have been particularly successful. Farmers are now harvesting this rice in most places. Except for some pockets of producing areas in Sylhet and Mymensingh where sudden flash floods have threatened crops, the Boro production output on the whole is likely to surpass targets in the present season. Thus, a record yield of this rice is expected. The highly successful production will be no doubt due to the traditional diligence of the farmers. But government policies of reaching the inputs at affordable prices to farmers and other timely supports, have also contributed to the outstanding production.
Thus, there should otherwise be joys in the faces of most farmers. But after the sound production, the sustaining of the happiness for farmers will depend on their getting proper returns for their hard toil. They need to get prices from selling the rice that would leave them with a reasonable margin of profit. This will give them incentives to try to be equally as productive, if not more, in the next season. However, the farmers in varying degrees across the country are concerned, in one way or other, about whether they would be getting cost-plus or remunerative prices for their produces or not.
This concern prevails because buying process at the outset of the selling season is usually found to be dominated by the so-called big rice traders or millers. They normally do not offer attractive prices and deceive the farmers through faulty application of weights and measures while buying the rice. Governmental vigilance or actions are strongly needed against such deceits. The government has already declared its own procurement prices for rice and paddy. The aim is to procure, like in the other years, a substantial amount of the Boro rice output for keeping them as part of government stocks for its food management operations. Its buying activities should start in full swing all over the country right at the beginning of the harvesting time. Otherwise, small farmers will particularly be exposed to the exploitation by sections of dishonest traders. Furthermore, there should be proper monitoring and actions in relation to private 'buyers' or intermediaries involved in purchases of food grains to ensure that they provide a good deal to the farmers.
Apart from this, it is also vitally important for the government to embark immediately on a crash programme to build adequate storage capacities in support of its food grain procurement drives. A lot of concern was aired about this during the boro procurement season last year. But strangely that concern was not reflected in steps taken with a sense of emergency to build additional food grain storing capacities and to mend the defective storing spaces in many places. In fact, there has been no substantial expansion of new capacity in the form of food silos or warehouses over past several years. This is posing as a serious problem that undermines the capacities of the government to build and maintain a bigger stock if that is decided and to even preserve the procured stocks in safe conditions. The government should, therefore, give its priority attention to building greater and safe storing spaces for food grains to be mopped up through publicly administered food grain procurement drives.