Md. Abdul Latif Mondal On April 30, the government announced the policy for procurement of Boro paddy and rice from the domestic market. The main features of the policy are- (a) the government will procure 10 lakh tonnes of rice from the domestic market during the current Boro season, of which 9 lakh tonnes of rice and 1.5 lakh tonnes of paddy, from which 1 lakh tonnes of rice will be available; (b) The procurement price of paddy and rice will be Tk 18 and Tk 28 respectively; (c) The Government has estimated the production cost of paddy at Tk 15.76 per kg and the cost of rice preparation at Tk 24.27 per kg and (d) The collection campaign will begin on May 3 and continue till September.
Boro is our highest rice producing crop. Second and third place holders after Boro are Aman and Aush respectively. At present, about 60 percent of the rice produced in the country is obtained from Boro.
Boro production target has been set at 1 crore 87 lakh tonnes this year. According to government and other sources, this year's boro production target will be met due to favorable weather conditions, availability of infrastructure facilities, early flooding in the Haor region, absence of sea tides in coastal areas etc. Due to this, the importance of collecting more paddy and rice by the government in the current Boro season has increased.
Now the question has arisen, are the interests of farmers protected in Boro collection policy?
Factors influencing the government's procurement and pricing of paddy over the years are- (a) To stabilize market prices during harvesting and domestication seasons, so that rice farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, do not suffer and produce more paddy; Be encouraged; (b) building food security stocks; (c) to stabilize prices by selling rice from government stocks in the open market and fair price shops when the price of rice rises in the market; (d) implementation of targeted food distribution programs and (e) cost of rice production at the farmer level.
Like other years in the current Boro season, what has influenced the government in determining the procurement price of paddy is the production cost of paddy at the farmer level and the cost of rice production at the paddy owner level. According to the government's estimate, the production cost of boro paddy per kg at the farmer level this year is Tk 15.76. According to the government estimate last year it was 14.65 taka. This year the production cost of boro rice per kg has been shown to increase by 1.11 taka. This means, according to the government, the production cost of Boro rice has increased by 7.5 percent. But there are questions about this estimate of the government.
According to a report published in The Daily Star on January 19, the cost of boro production will increase this year due to the increase in fuel and fertilizer prices. According to a Financial Express report on January 24, deep tubewell owners have hiked the price of irrigation water due to rising electricity prices. Apart from this, last year the price of one bag (50 kg) of urea fertilizer was Tk 600, this year it is Tk 1000. In short, one hectare of land will cost 70 to 75 thousand rupees for boro cultivation this year, which amount was 35 to 40 thousand rupees last year. Many more informative reports and articles have been published in various newspapers about the increase in the cost of boro plantation this year due to increase in fuel, electricity and fertilizer prices.
Therefore, scholars feel that the collection price of paddy per kg should have been set at least 20 rupees per kg.
The amount of rice that the government will buy from farmers is only 1.5 lakh tons. In support of this decision, Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzak said that farmers cannot supply rice as dry as it should be to keep it in warehouse. This is a major hindrance in direct procurement of paddy from farmers. My point in this context is that the matter can be solved easily administratively. About a decade ago, during my tenure as Secretary of the Ministry of Food, several food grain (paddy and wheat) collection drives were conducted. At that time two or four isolated cases of non-supply of dry paddy by farmers as per Boro paddy collection policy were brought to my notice. Such problems are solved by sitting and discussing with the rice supplying farmers in my presence or in the presence of senior officials of the Food Department. So to protect the interests of the farmers, the government should purchase a large quantity of Boro paddy directly from them. For the convenience of farmers, the government can set up paddy purchasing centers at upazila food offices and union parishad office premises and other convenient places.
According to the reports published in various newspapers, the paddy-rice collection campaign was supposed to start on May 3 but it did not actually start. At present the paddy market is under the control of paddy owners, stockists and broker-dealers and the price is far below the government fixed price. They are very happy to reduce the price of rice. According to a report published in a Bengali daily (Dainik Ittefaq) on May 14, the market price of boro paddy in Sylhet's Haor area is Tk 400-480. Freshly threshed boro paddy is being sold at Tk 400 to 520 per maund in Sariakandi, Phulbari, Karitala and other places of Bogra. In a report published in another Bengali daily (Banik Barta) on May 10, it is said that the average paddy is being sold at Tk 450-500 in the local market of Mymensingh. In different markets of Rajshahi, each paddy is being sold for Tk 500-600.
The farmers' organization 'Bangladesh Krishak Samiti' demanded that the government should set up paddy buying centers at the union level and procure paddy directly from the farmers at higher prices. The organization said, farmers do not sell rice, they sell paddy. As the collection drive is almost entirely dependent on rice farmers, only they will benefit.
As mentioned earlier, one of the objectives of the government's paddy-rice procurement campaign is to keep prices stable in the market during the harvesting and harvesting season, so that rice farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, are not affected and are encouraged to produce more rice. Most of the boro farmers are small and marginal. These farmers grow Boro crops on loan. Apart from this, there are many shortages in their family. As a result, after harvesting the rice, they have to take the hard-earned rice to the market to sell. They have to pay their debts with the money from the sale of paddy, to meet the minimum needs of the family. So when the price of paddy falls at the beginning of the season, they suffer financially and lose interest in paddy production.
Readers will have noticed that in the last two weeks the price of paddy has come down a lot, but there has been no change in the price of rice. Although the price of some fine rice has decreased by Tk 40-50 per maund in the wholesale market, it has not affected the retail market. And there is no fluctuation in the price of coarse rice in the market. According to the website of the government organization Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), on May 2, the price of coarse rice was Tk 28 to Tk 32 per kg. Same price on May 14. Note that the government takes the supply of coarse rice from rice mill owners. The lower the price of paddy, the higher the profit for rice millers.
The government has become completely dependent on the paddy owners for the procurement of rice and they are taking full advantage of this opportunity. Readers may recall that in 2010, the collection price of rice was fixed at Tk 25 per kg during Boro season. In that context, the rice mill owners entered into an agreement with the Food Department for the supply of rice. Within days of the signing of the agreement, the contracted rice millers refused to supply rice at the stipulated price on the pretext of increasing the price of rice in the market and put pressure on the government to increase the price of rice. The government yielded to their pressure and increased the price of rice by three rupees per kg. That is, the collection price of rice per kg is re-fixed at 28 taka. Various juicy rumors were created in the market about the matter.
The time has come to review the issue of single source i.e. procurement of rice only from rice millers. The National Food Policy of 2006 also directed procurement of foodgrains from the domestic market through open competitive tendering as an additional source. Finally, the interests of farmers have not been protected in the current boro collection policy. Keeping the price of rice unchanged during the procurement campaign, the price of paddy should be fixed at least Tk 20 per kg. Arrangements should be made to procure rice equivalent to five lakh tonnes of rice directly from the farmers. The government will give the collected paddy to rice mill owners to supply it in the form of rice. In the current paddy-rice collection policy, the rice paddy owners and stockholders as well as the middlemen are profiting, the farmers are suffering. So this method needs to be revised. (The text is published keeping in mind the interests of the farmers)
# Md. Abdul Latif Mondal : Former Secretary and Columnist latifm43@gmail.com
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