Govt to procure 3 lakh tonnes of rice

Senior Correspondent: The government will procure a total of 300,000 tonnes of aman rice at a rate of Taka 39 per kg from the internal market during the current aman season.

The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting of food planning and monitoring committee (FPMC) held on Thursday. The procurement drive will continue from December 3, 2017 to February 28, 2018.

"Decision has been taken to procure 300,000 tonnes rice during the current aman season at a rate of Taka 39 per kg as the farmers have to sped Taka 37 for growing a kg of rice," Food Minister Advocate Qamrul Islam told journalists after the meeting.

Last year, the government also procured 300,000 tonnes of aman rice at a rate of Taka 33 per kg and production cost of per kg rice was Taka 29.

The food minister said the government has a target of growing 1.40 crore tonnes of aman rice this year. "I am hopeful about achieving this target," he added.

Replying to a question, he said the production cost of per kg paddy will be Taka 24.63 while cost of per kg rice will be Taka 37.02.

Food minister Qamrul Islam chaired the meeting while Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury, secretaries of the concerned ministries and other senior ministry officials, among others, attended it.

risingbd/Dhaka/November 30, 2017/Naymuddin/A K Azad