Sustainable management of agri sector must to end food market volatility

Rice prices continue to soar in the local market putting more pressure on the lower-income group people who have already been bearing the burden of rising prices of other essentials. The price of rice has been hiked by Tk 300 per 50 kg sack on the plea of increased transportation costs due to fuel price hike. As the government has recently stopped rice imports aiming to support farmers by offering a fair price, wholesalers have taken advantage of the opportunity thereby increasing prices. In this harvest time, an increase of the main staple will cut the pocket of fixed income people more deeply and force them to reduce consumption of other nutritious foods.
The authorities started importing rice from India and other countries early this year due to higher prices of the grain. But with the onset of the third wave of the ongoing Covid pandemic recently and the increase in global prices, the price of rice in the country started increasing again. The government has reduced the import duty on rice to 10% in the wake of rising prices. However, as the import process was not competitive, rice was not imported as per the set target. Despite the benefits of tariff reduction, rice prices continued to increase. And the rice market is not stabilising even after the start of the import process, due mainly to food shortage in the country.
Import of rice from neighbouring countries to meet production shortfall should not continue for years. The interests of farmers and consumers should be taken care of by helping produce high yielding and climate resilient rice and ensuring proper market linkages with value addition. Besides, promotion of dietary diversity can trigger more production diversity and reduce the dependence on a single crop. It is high time to address cross-cutting issues, such as using IT in the agriculture sector, increasing training facilities for farmers, agriculture officers, introducing silos at the union level, ensuring a supply chain so that farmers can get fair prices for their produce. We have witnessed a revolution in the production of rice and other agricultural items like vegetables, fisheries, livestock, poultry and fruits. But due to lack of modern production and supply linkages the sector is not developing sustainably.