To procure 2 lakh tonnes of rice
The government on Wednesday decided to procure two lakh tonnes of aman rice from the local market in the current season at Tk 30 a kilogram.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the food planning and monitoring committee at the food ministry conference room in the secretariat.‘The procurement will start from December 1 and continue until February 28 of the next year,’ food minister Ramesh Chandra Sen told reporters after the meeting.
He said the government decided to procure aman rice to help ensure farmers getting fair prices of their crop.
‘If the government gets time after fulfilling its target, it may procure more rice from farmers,’ Ramesh said.
Food ministry officials said some 2.75 lakh tonnes of aman rice were procured from the local market during the last crop year (2012-13) against the government target of three lakh tonnes at Tk 26 a kg.
The agriculture ministry last month set the production cost of aman rice at Tk 25.42 a kg and paddy at Tk 17.02 a kg for the current 2013-14 fiscal year.
The production cost of aman rice has increased by 2.32 per cent in this year from that in the previous year due to a rise in labour cost.
In the last crop year, the government had set the production cost of aman rice at Tk 24.76 a kg and that of paddy Tk 16.63 a kg.
The meeting of the FPMC, a cabinet-level committee chaired by the food minister, was attended, among others, by finance minister AMA Muhith, agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury and commerce minister GM Quader.
-With New Age input
