Govt to buy rice at Tk 38

Secretariat Correspondent: The government has decided to buy Boro rice and paddy at Tk 38 and Tk 26 a kilogramme respectively through the direct purchasing scheme from the farmers.

Alongside, the government will collect Atap (non-parboiled) rice at Tk 37.

However, the government will not purchase wheat this year due to limited production.

Food minister Qamrul Islam told this to the reporters after a meeting of Food Planning and Monitoring Committee at his secretariat office on Sunday.

The Minister said, “The government will purchase a total of 8 lakh metric tonnes of parboiled rice and one lakh metric tonnes of non-parboiled rice this year.”

Besides, 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of paddy will be collected.

Rice and paddy collection campaign will start on May 2 which will end on August 31, he added.

Qamrul said, “There are currently 12,97,847 metric tonnes of food grains in stock which is the highest reserve in the government warehouse in last 20 years.”

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury among other members of the committee attended the meeting with the Food Minister Qamrul Islam in the chair.

risingbd/Dhaka/April 08, 2018/Naymuddin/A K Azad