If replenishing its food stock is just one idea behind the public procurement of grains, the other important goal is to give price support to the farmers who grow the paddy. However, in this year’s procurement plan, the government will buy only 200,000 tons of paddy from the farmers and 600,000 tons of rice from the millers. The government high-ups clearly wanted to reach procurement price benefits to the farmers and had accordingly set a target of buying 800,000 tons of paddy directly from the growers. Unfortunately, the Food Department bought only a quarter of the targeted volume from the farmers. It, however, purchased a huge bulk of over one million tons of rice from the millers and middlemen, thereby not reaching the price benefits directly to the farmers.

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 29, 2020 18:11 UTC