Rice procurement drive going on at a snail’s pace in Sylhet division
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The rice procurement drive is going on at a snail's pace in the Sylhet division with a target of 17,907 tonnes during the current season. The target includes 8,012 tonnes of parboiled and the rest 9,895 tonnes of Atap, an official of Food Department of the divisional office informed.
The collected quantity includes 391 tonnes of parboiled rice and 258 tonnes of Atap in Sylhet, 84 tonnes of parboiled and 64 tonnes of Atap in Moulvibazar, 208 tonnes of parboiled in Habiganj and 616 tonnes of parboiled and 595 tonnes of Atap in Sunamganj district. The total stood at 1,299 tonnes of parboiled and 2,216 tonnes of Atap rice.
The official said the Food Department had signed contracts with 42 millers for supplying parboiled and 415 millers for the Atap rice to the food department in the division.
It is stateable here that the government has taken up the programme for procuring 8012 tonnes of parboiled rice and 9,895 tonnes of Atap from four districts of Sylhet division.
The procurement programme would continue till August. Contracts were signed with the millers for the supply through 44 purchasing centres in the region, the official added. Tk 37 is being paid for Atap and Tk 38 for the parboiled rice per kg.
The authority is hopeful of getting a good response this time, as the yield is very good due to favourable weather almost whole the Boro season.
However, in the last year the target couldn't be achieved due to short supply of both parboiled and Atap (non-boiled) varieties from the millers of Sylhet division even on extension of time twice. The Food Department had failed to procure even a small quantity since the region had suffered devastating crop loss in last year's Boro season.
It was failed due to poor supply after repeated flash floods, lack of initiatives by the rice mill owners, absence of marketable surplus of rice or paddy etc, officials noted.
The crop was cultivated on 481,521 hectares in these districts this year. It includes 269,446 hectares in haor region and the rest 212,075 hectares in non-haor areas. Amid a fair weather, there was a good yield of 1926,084 tonnes of rice, the DAE informed.