Demand-supply mismatch of rice confusing policymakers: CPD

The local think-tank, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), in its latest observation said there is a mismatch between the data of demand and supply of rice which is misleading the policymakers to take timely initiatives.
The CPD at a press conference in the city said on Monday inefficiency from lack of competitiveness in the marketing of rice in Bangladesh is encouraging imports.
The private research organisation also suggested some policy measures which could address the concerns of the rice sector.
The observations came at a media briefing on releasing the report styled "State of the Bangladesh Economy in FY 2015 and the Closure of Sixth Five-Year Plan," prepared as a part of CPD's Independent Review of Bangladesh's Development (IRBD) programme.
CPD Research Fellow Towfiqul Islam Khan presented the IRBD report that mainly looked at macroeconomic management in FY 2015 and outlook for FY 2016, recent dynamics of rice price in Bangladesh, assessment of progress of fast track projects and analysis of implementation of the sixth five-year plan (SFYP).
The report said the accurate measurement of demand-supply gap of foodgrains has remained elusive for policymakers in Bangladesh since available estimates based on BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) data do not conform to the reality on the ground.
There has been sustained increase in rice production for the last two decades and Bangladesh achieved near self-sufficiency in rice production, it said.
However, the country was never in a position to export regular variety of rice, it said adding that she imports rice occasionally and wheat regularly to meet domestic demand.
"Several factors contributed to the inaccuracy in the estimates of 'food gap' (defined as total requirements not met by domestic production)," the CPD report said.
"These include, among others, ad hoc and inaccurate estimate of per capita consumption, persistent biases in the acreage (and hence production) estimates of foodgrains by seasons and lack of accurate population estimates by poor and non-poor categories and by place of residence (rural and urban areas) etc," the report said.
Thus an unresolved paradox exists in the food economy of Bangladesh, it added.
The country has a surplus in terms of the availability of foodgrain if the current estimates of domestic production along with provisions of seed, feed and wastage are considered and estimated consumption based on the country's population are taken into account.
Yet Bangladesh imports a significant quantity of foodgrains each year, indicating that the current estimate of food gap is probably erroneous.
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