The government will buy seven lakh tonnes of paddy and rice from the domestic market this Aman season. Boiled rice will be bought at Tk 44 a kg, atap rice at Tk 43 and paddy at Tk 30.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder gave reporters the information after a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee in the Cabinet Division conference room at the Secretariat on Sunday 8 October.

Last Aman season the government bought two lakh tonnes of paddy and five lakh of rice from the domestic market, at Tk 42 a kg for rice and Tk 28 for paddy.

The minister said this year's procurement target is four lakh tonnes of boiled rice, one lakh tonnes of atap rice and two lakh of paddy, at Tk 44 a kg for boiled rice, Tk 43 for atap rice and Tk 30 for paddy. Procurement will begin towards the end of November, he said.

He said the target last Boro season was four lakh tonnes of paddy and 12.5 lakh tonnes of rice. "Of that, we were able to procure two lakh tonnes of paddy. In rice, we were able to buy another two lakh tonnes over the 12.5 lakh tonnes. We have arranged to keep the distribution system running by procuring rice from the domestic market, so that foreign currency is not wasted on importing rice," he said.

The minister said government stocks of food grain are satisfactory. "Government stocks of rice and wheat together stand at 17 lakh 73 thousand tonnes, of which 16 lakh 20 thousand tonnes is rice and wheat is one lakh 53 thousand tonnes," he said.

Sadhan Chandra Majumder also said four and a half lakh tonnes of wheat imports are in the pipeline, with three lakh tonnes coming under the G2G (government-to-government) system.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.