Govt yet to begin boro procurement
The government is yet to begin boro rice procurement during the current season as the Department of Food could not complete signing agreements with the millers in due time, said senior officials.
‘The boro procurement was supposed to begin on May 2. But we could not start it as we could not complete signing of contracts with the millers,’ food department director general Badrul Hasan told New Age on Friday.
He said they had so far signed contracts with only a few millers for procuring 4000-5000 tonnes of boro rice against a target of 15 lakh tonnes.
He said the department would require another week to complete the agreement singing with 18,000 millers.
Replying to a question, the DG said that the government had now five lakh tonnes of food grains in its buffer stock.
Badrul Hasan informed that the government would import six lakh tonnes of coarse rice to face any untoward situation as standing boro crops were damaged during early floods in March-April.
As per the government decision, the food department is scheduled to procure 15 lakh tonnes of paddy and rice during the ongoing boro season from May 2 to August 31.
Of the amount, there were 8 lakh tonnes of husked rice and seven tonnes of the paddy as the procurement price of per kilogram rice of Tk 34 and per kg of paddy at Tk 24.
Farmers have complained that production of their boro rice has been hampered by blast disease and early rains with storms.
Harun-ur Rashid, a Faridpur-based farmer leader, told New Age that 60 per cent of boro had already been harvested by farmers.
The hailstorms and early rains caused low production of boro rice during the current season, he said.
As boro rice is grown suing heavy fertilisers, irrigation and pesticides, its production cost is very high, said Harun, urging the government to raise the government procurement price.
Another farmer Faijul from Nilphamari Sadar said that his five bighas of boro croplands were partially damaged by the blast disease this year, so the yield was low.
He, however, expressed satisfaction with the current boro price of Tk 800 per 40 kg.
The growers have already completed harvest of boro in the haor areas and nearly 60 per cent of boro rice were harvested in other parts of the country as on Friday, according to Department of Agricultural Extension.
DAE field service wing deputy director Mohammad Abduhu told New Age that the boro harvest was fully completed in the haor belt.
Per hectare production of boro rice was found to be four tonnes on average, he claimed.
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