THE government stock of rice having fallen below the level required to prevent millers and wholesalers from manipulating prices is concerning. There are, as 抖阴精品 reported on April 22, 0.89 million tonnes of rice in government silos, while agriculturalists say that the government needs to have at least 1.3 million tonnes of rice in its stock to keep the rice market stable. The overall government food stock, which includes rice and wheat, has come to the lowest level in two years. There are around 1.2 million tonnes of rice and wheat in the government silos, compared to 1.6 million tonnes in 2023 and 1.4 million tonnes in 2022. With the prices of rice having remained high for the past few years, a low government stock may give millers and wholesalers an opportunity to manipulate the market further, as the top 50 auto rice millers with 20 per cent of the national milling capacity have the power to influence the supply and prices of rice. What is also worrying is the government鈥檚 persistent failure to buy the target amount of rice directly from producers and ensure fair prices to them. The Food Planning and Monitoring Committee is reported to have decided to speed up the collection of food grain in a meeting on April 21.
The government plans to procure 0.5 million tonnes of paddy, 1.1 million tonnes of parboiled rice, and 0.1 million tonnes of non-parboiled rice between May 7 and August 31. The Food Planning and Monitoring Committee has fixed the procurement price of per kilogram paddy at Tk 32 from last year鈥檚 Tk 30 and that of parboiled rice at Tk 45 from last year鈥檚 Tk 44. The price hardly gives any profit margins to the producers, who say that the cost of the production of per kilogram paddy might cross Tk 32 this year as the cost of seeds, irrigation, fertilisers and labour has shot up. What is also concerning is that farmers are routinely deprived of government prices by an unholy syndicate of errant government officials and millers who continue to exert massive influence on government procurement. In sharp contrast to the government procurement mechanism, millers always find one way or another to exploit the farmers. When farmers hardly made any profit from selling their produce, millers made Tk 10鈥�14 a kilogram in profit in 2022 and 2023. Farmers are also deprived of fair prices for their production on the open market, where almost 98 per cent of the produce is sold. Farmers, most of whom do not have storage capacity and are burdened with loans and a high cost of living amid unprecedented inflation, are usually forced to distress sell, selling their produce below the production cost.
The authorities must, therefore, attend to both issues. They must raise the overall food stock substantially in order to avoid any market shock, and at the same time, they must ensure that farmers receive fair prices for the produce.