Paddy is selling in the market at Tk 1,200–1,300 a maund, but the government price has been set at Tk 1,050 a maund. Because the government price is lower than the market rate, the food department could not achieve its paddy procurement target. The district food office did, however, achieve 100 per cent of its rice procurement target.

The paddy and rice procurement drive ran from 17 November last year to 7 March this year.

According to the district food department, the government target for paddy procurement was 1,689 metric tonnes, of which 15 metric tonnes were collected. All 15 tonnes came from mill owners in Nalchhiti upazila. Not a single chhatak of paddy could be collected from the other three upazilas (Sadar, Rajapur and Kathalia).

For rice, the district target was 1,370 metric tonnes, and the achievement is given as 1,369 metric tonnes 980 maunds. Of this, 57 metric tonnes came from Jhalakathi Sadar upazila, 1,234 metric tonnes 980 maunds from Nalchhiti upazila, 37 metric tonnes from Rajapur upazila and 41 metric tonnes from Amua in Kathalia upazila.

Mill owners and farmers said the government had set the price Tk 150 to Tk 250 a maund below the market rate. There is also a moisture standard for paddy. For these reasons farmers did not sell paddy to the government at this price. In local markets near their areas, farmers could get good prices for paddy whether it was wet, dry or half-wet.

A mill owner in Nalchhiti, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Under our agreement with the food department we bought paddy and handed it over to them. At the rate we bought it in the market and gave it to the food department, we have faced a big loss this year."

Jhalakathi District Food Controller Md Nazmul Hossain said that because paddy prices were higher in Jhalakathi's local markets, farmers were reluctant to sell to the food department at the government price, so the desired target could not be met. But because the rice price was in line with the market price, it was possible to reach 100 per cent of the rice target.

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