Govt urged to procure rice from growers

Right to Food Bangladesh, a food-security campaign platform, has recommended the government to procure 50 lakh tonnes of rice directly from the growers.

The platform made this recommendation at a webinar titled “Food production, import and market situation: In the context of right to food” on Thursday.

Shahanuare Shaid Shahin, General Secretary of Bangladesh Agricultural Journalist Forum, presented the keynote paper at the webinar where he called for modernising the government system for the collection of husked and unhusked rice and controlling the middlemen to protect the interests of both farmers and consumers.  

The food ministry has facilities to store 21 lakh tonnes of food grains and the government plans to raise it to 30 lakh tonnes by this year. “The country produces more than 8 crore tonnes of food grains but the government has the facility of storing less than 5 per cent of total production,” he said in the keynote paper.

Food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder while addressing as the chief guest blamed the traders’ greed for extra profit behind increase of rice price.

“Food ministry’s main task is to distribute food under government facilities, especially through the social safety net programmes.

The collection of Aman rice was hampered in the last season due to natural calamities and the Covid-19. Farmers did not cultivate Aush rice too despite government incentives. So, we had to import rice,” said the minister.

Shahjahan Kabir, Director General of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, said an unidentified group was behind the rice price hike.

“Bangladesh is witnessing 2.8 per cent growth in food production. However, the rice price increased due to invisible hands in the market despite record production,” said Shahjahan.

Najneen Ahmed, country economist of the United Nations Development Programme, emphasised on amending existing laws and enacting a new one to ensure food for all in Bangladesh. She also suggested enacting Right to Food Act in this regard.  

Call for forming price commission

Food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder and other speakers spoke about the formation of a price commission to control the price of the food grains.

“Fare price cannot be ensured by fixing the price. We have to think about something new within our experiences. Formation of a price commission is not enough. The recommendations made by the commission have to be maintained,” said Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, chairman of Right to Food Bangladesh.

“Right to Food Bangladesh will hand over a draft of the food right act to the ministry soon,” said Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, also the chairman of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation.