The government has decided to procure a quarter million tonnes of paddy directly from farmers on top of the 1.25 million tonne of paddy and rice it announced earlier to buy.
Food Minister Shadhan Chandra Majumder told the media on Tuesday (Jun 11) that decision to buy the additional 250,000 tonnes of paddy at Tk 26 per kg came to compensate the farmers who incurred losses due to low price.
“Paddy prices dropped a bit this year due to increased production. The additional procurement aims to compensate farmers,” he said.
The government will directly buy paddy from farmer, which will be supplied to millers, said Majumder before adding, “Plans have been taken to construct 200 paddy silos across the country capable of storing 1 million tonne grains.”
Speaking at the media call, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque said that the prime minister has advised to procure grains beyond the previously set target directly from farmers and supply it to millers for making rice.
“The prime minister said profit has to be ensured for framers within the shortest possible time and for that we’ll buy more paddy from them,” he said.
The government previously decided to procure 1,200,000 tonnes of rice and 150,000 tonnes of paddy.
The ongoing food grain procurement programme which started on April 25 will continue till August 31.
Earlier, farmers at different parts of the country staged protests demanding fair prices of their produce as they have been counting huge losses.
Students of different educational institutions of different parts of the country also had helped farmers harvest their paddy to minimize their losses.
Mill owners are reportedly buying maximum rice at lower prices in haor areas.
The production cost of per maund of rice, including the labourer cost, is said to be Tk 1,000 while its selling price is only Tk 550 to Tk 750 at the local market.