Agriculture ministry has fixed the production cost of aman rice at Tk 25.42 per kilogram and paddy at Tk 17.02 per kilogram for the current 2013-14 fiscal year, officials on Sunday said.
Food ministry would estimate the purchase rate of aman rice for procurement on the basis of the production cost, they said. Production cost of aman rice has increased by 2.32 per cent than previous year due to increase in labour cost, they said, adding that production cost of aman rice was fixed at Tk 24.76 per kg and for paddy Tk 16.63 for per kg for last 2012-13 crop year.
Aman production cost was fixed after considering the prices of all inputs including fertilizers, seeds, integrated pest management, labour, irrigation, land rent and interest of the capital, officials said.
Agriculture ministry on Sunday forwarded the fixed price rate of production of aman to the food ministry for estimating the purchase rate of aman for the current season, they said.
The agriculture ministry has fixed the production cost of aman somewhat earlier due to political situation although it is usually set at the end of November, they pointed out.
Aman cultivation ended in July-August and its harvest would begin in November-December, department of agriculture extension officials said.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, some 12.897 million metric tons of aman was produced from 5.61 million hectares in 2012-13.
Officials said an inter-ministerial committee headed by agriculture ministry additional secretary Swapan Kumar Saha on October 21 fixed the production cost reviewing the drafts made by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Department of Agriculture Extension and Agriculture Marketing Department.
According to food department, some 2,75,563 tonnes of aman rice were procured from local market during the last crop year (2012-13) against the government target of three lakh tonnes.
Of them, 2,37,116 tonnes of rice were boiled rice procured at Tk 28 per kilogram while some 37247 tonnes of atab (non boiled) rice at Tk 27 per Kg.
-With New Age input
