Doubts have arisen over whether the Directorate General of Food's paddy and rice procurement target will be met in Sirajganj this Aman season. As of 22 December, 35 days after procurement began, not a single handful of paddy had been collected at six of the district's warehouses. At the remaining three, the food department had collected just 1.55 percent of its paddy target. Over the same period, rice procurement reached 40 percent of the target.

According to the District Food Controller's office, the government began buying paddy at Tk 33 a kg and boiled rice at Tk 47 on 17 November this year. The target for the district's nine food warehouses is 5,433 tonnes of paddy and 8,098.680 tonnes of rice. The drive will end on 28 February next year. So far, 1.55 percent of the paddy and 40 percent of the rice have been procured in the district.

People involved in procurement say that because market prices are higher than the government purchase price, farmers are showing no interest in selling paddy to the government. Some rice mill owners have signed contracts with the food department and are selling rice to protect their licences, but many mill owners remain outside the contracts.

At the Sirajganj Sadar upazila food warehouse, workers were seen idling for lack of work. Workers Zahurul Islam and Nannu Sekh told Jagonews24 that 28 workers work at the warehouse and are paid Tk 14 a tonne. Procurement is under way, they said, but while some rice mill owners are delivering rice, farmers are not delivering paddy, so they have to sit idle.

Moin Uddin, officer-in-charge of the Sirajganj Sadar upazila food warehouse, told Jagonews24 that against a target of 876 tonnes of paddy, only three tonnes have been collected so far, and against a target of 678 tonnes of rice, 267.540 tonnes.

Abdul Momin, a farmer of Shyampur village, said he is not selling paddy to government warehouses because he gets a higher price for Aman paddy in the market than the government rate. But if the price is a little above the market in future, he will sell paddy to the food warehouse.

District Food Controller Harun Or Rashid told Jagonews24 that there are 391 rice mills in the district, of which 285 mill owners have signed contracts. "We have collected 40 percent of the rice from them so far. But paddy procurement is very low. Still, we are trying to meet the target," he said.

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