Govt considering extention of Boro paddy, rice procurement deadline

The government is seriously considering to extend the deadline for Boro paddy and rice procurement drive following the requests made by the millers, an official said.

Earlier, the government set the deadline for completing the procurement drive on August 31.

But sources at the Directorate General of Food (DG Food) said that the total procurement (paddy, boiled and non-boiled rice) until August 25 was still below half of its total procurement targets due to the ongoing floods, rains and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The government has set a target to procure a total of two million tonnes of Boro paddy and rice during the current procurement drive. It started to procure Boro paddy on April 26 while rice on May 7.

Of the total two-millions-tonne target, 0.8 million tonnes are paddy while one million tonnes boiled rice and 0.15 million tonnes (1,50,000 tonnes) non-boiled rice.

The procurement price for one kilogram paddy was fixed at Tk 26 while boiled rice at Tk 36 and non-boiled rice Tk 35.

"We (the government) are seriously considering to extend the deadline for completing the Boro rice and paddy procurement," Director General of the DG Food Sarwar Mahmud told the FE on Friday.

He said the amount of procured Boro rice and paddy until August 25 was insignificant compared to that of the corresponding period of last year due to inclement weather such as floods and rains this year.

Until August 25 the DG Food procured only 1,99,654 tonnes of paddy, 5,26279 tonnes boiled rice and 75,143 tonnes non-boiled rice.

The DG Food office has asked the regional and district food controllers to prepare the lists of errant millers who have failed or were not supplying rice (both boiled and non-boiled) timely to the government as per agreements.

Mr Mahmud said that the government is also considering to take legal action against the millers who have failed to supply paddy or rice to the government despite signing contract with the latter.

He said that they have already conveyed the millers' demand for extending procurement deadline to the ministry of food.

"There will be a meeting soon to decide on the extension of Boro procurement deadline," he said, hinting that the extension may be until second week of the next month or September 15.

He mentioned that there are around 1.3 million tonnes of foodgrains stocked at government silos. Out of the 1.3 million tonnes, over one million tonnes are rice and the rest are wheat.

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