Govt plans purchasing rice to make up Boro target deficit
Saturday, 26 September 2009
S M Jahangir
The government has adopted a fresh strategy to attain its 1.20 million tonnes of food grain procurement target, set earlier for the last Boro cropping season, officail sources said.
A poor collection performance of paddy has necessitated the authorities to purchase the remaining volume of the targeted food grain in the form of rice, they said.
"Since there has been a shortfall in the collection of paddy, we have planned to make up the deficit through purchasing rice," a senior official of food and disaster management ministry told the FE Thursday.
Citing figures, the official said still the collection of paddy has fallen short of the target by over 50,000 tonnes, despite the fact that the purchase of rice has almost reached the official target.
Nearly 96,000 tonnes of paddy have been collected so far against the target of 150,000 tonnes.
Taking the prevailing target shortfall into account, the authorities have extended further the Boro procurment deadline by 15 days more until September 30 in a bid to help reach the target, officials said.
Initially, the government had set August 31 as the deadline for purchase of Boro crop but the time limit was extended earlier by 15 days following the requests from the local rice millers due to rain, they mentioned.
The government had also set the target of procuring 1.05 million tonnes of boiled rice and 50,000 tonnes of non-boiled (atap) rice while the prices of the former was fixed at Tk 22 per kg and the latter Tk 21 per kg. The purchase price of paddy, on the other hand, was fixed at Tk 14 per kg.
So far, the authorities have purchased nearly 996,000 tonnes of boiled rice and 47,000 tonnes of non-boiled rice, official figures revealed.
"We are certainly hopeful of achieving the food-grain procurement target within the extended timeframe," said a senior official at the food and disaster ministry.
Unlike previous occasions, the government has got 'very positive' response from the local rice millers as the official procurement rates of rice is considerably higher than their open market prices.
Although the government had a plan to enhance the Boro procurement target, later it dropped the plan due mainly to lack of sufficient storage capacity.
The effective storage capacity under the government's existing food godowns is estimated at 1.3 million tonnes while the government has now a stock of about 1.2 million tonnes of food grains.
A top government official recently said the government had a plan to enhance its food grain storage capacity by 0.5 to 0.6 million tonnes in the near future.
The government has already discussed the proposals on setting up of some food godowns, especially in the country's northern areas, with the help of donors, he added.
The government has adopted a fresh strategy to attain its 1.20 million tonnes of food grain procurement target, set earlier for the last Boro cropping season, officail sources said.
A poor collection performance of paddy has necessitated the authorities to purchase the remaining volume of the targeted food grain in the form of rice, they said.
"Since there has been a shortfall in the collection of paddy, we have planned to make up the deficit through purchasing rice," a senior official of food and disaster management ministry told the FE Thursday.
Citing figures, the official said still the collection of paddy has fallen short of the target by over 50,000 tonnes, despite the fact that the purchase of rice has almost reached the official target.
Nearly 96,000 tonnes of paddy have been collected so far against the target of 150,000 tonnes.
Taking the prevailing target shortfall into account, the authorities have extended further the Boro procurment deadline by 15 days more until September 30 in a bid to help reach the target, officials said.
Initially, the government had set August 31 as the deadline for purchase of Boro crop but the time limit was extended earlier by 15 days following the requests from the local rice millers due to rain, they mentioned.
The government had also set the target of procuring 1.05 million tonnes of boiled rice and 50,000 tonnes of non-boiled (atap) rice while the prices of the former was fixed at Tk 22 per kg and the latter Tk 21 per kg. The purchase price of paddy, on the other hand, was fixed at Tk 14 per kg.
So far, the authorities have purchased nearly 996,000 tonnes of boiled rice and 47,000 tonnes of non-boiled rice, official figures revealed.
"We are certainly hopeful of achieving the food-grain procurement target within the extended timeframe," said a senior official at the food and disaster ministry.
Unlike previous occasions, the government has got 'very positive' response from the local rice millers as the official procurement rates of rice is considerably higher than their open market prices.
Although the government had a plan to enhance the Boro procurement target, later it dropped the plan due mainly to lack of sufficient storage capacity.
The effective storage capacity under the government's existing food godowns is estimated at 1.3 million tonnes while the government has now a stock of about 1.2 million tonnes of food grains.
A top government official recently said the government had a plan to enhance its food grain storage capacity by 0.5 to 0.6 million tonnes in the near future.
The government has already discussed the proposals on setting up of some food godowns, especially in the country's northern areas, with the help of donors, he added.