Government to procure Boro rice at Tk 32 per kg

The government will procure 700,000 tonnes of Boro rice and 600,000 tonnes of Boro paddy at Tk 32 per kg and Tk 23 per kg respectively this year.

Food Minister Qamrul Islam told reporters after a meeting on Sunday the procurement would run from May 5 to Aug 31.
 
The production cost to farmers has increased by Tk 1 this year, but the government will procure at last year’s rates.
 
The minister said production of a kilogram of Boro paddy cost farmers Tk 20.7, while it took Tk 29 to produce a kg of rice.
 
The government procured 100,000 tonnes of Boro paddy and 1 million tonnes of Boro rice last year at Tk 22 and Tk 32 per kg respectively.
 
This year, the government set a bigger target ‘keeping farmers in mind’, Islam said.
 
“We have decided to procure more paddy this year to motivate farmers and to reduce the role of middleman,” he added.
 
He also said rice would be collected from mills only.
 
Instructions to buy rice and paddy for this season will be given after a meeting at Khadya Bhaban on Monday.
 
According to the minister, the government currently has a grain stock of 1.1 million tonnes against a total capacity of 2 million tonnes.
 
As the government ‘will not collect 1.3 million tonnes of grains in a day’, there should not be any storage problem, the food minister said.