The Directorate of Food has procured a record amount of paddy and rice in the current boro procurement season.

According to the directorate, the domestic boro procurement programme announced by the Ministry of Food ended on 15 August. This time 3 lakh 76 thousand 942 tonnes of paddy (107.69 per cent), 14 lakh 6 thousand 533 tonnes of parboiled rice (100.46 per cent) and 51 thousand 307 tonnes of aatap rice (102.21 per cent) were procured, the highest in Bangladesh's history.

The directorate says the government set a target this time of procuring 3 lakh 50 thousand tonnes of paddy, 14 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice and 50 thousand tonnes of aatap rice in the domestic boro programme.

According to the decision of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee (FPMC) meeting on 9 April, the target for the current boro season was set at 3.5 lakh tonnes of paddy, 14 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice and 35 thousand tonnes of aatap rice. The procurement price was fixed at Tk 36 a kg for paddy and Tk 49 a kg for rice. Boro procurement began on 14 April.

Directorate of Food officials said that paddy procurement had broken all past records and exceeded its target before the set deadline.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Food has allowed a further 50 thousand tonnes of parboiled rice and 15 thousand tonnes of aatap rice to be procured in the boro season.

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