Aman paddy and rice procurement drive begins

Staff Reporter :
The internal Aman paddy and rice procurement drive of the government has been started from Thursday. Joining several programmes virtually arranged in different districts from his office in Dhaka, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder inaugurated the procurement drive with the farmers.
While speaking as chief guest of the inaugural ceremony, Sadhan Majumder said, “Nobody will be allowed to do business with rice and paddy in the country without having a license. Illegal hoarding of rice and paddy without licenses wouldn’t be allowed.”
“Strict actions will be taken against those who will be involved in hoarding rice and paddy illegally,” he warned.
“The rice millers and traders must have to
submit their weekly income tax returns to the government for the weekly trading of rice and paddy. The millers must have to marketing packaged rice with their own brand mentioning the varieties of paddy. The packet of other brands cannot be used,” he added.
The government is buying paddy at Tk28 per kg directly from the farmers while rice would be bought at Tk42 per kg. Paddy and rice from the millers and farmers would be bought till February 28 next year in the ongoing procurement drive. But, rice procurement would be started from November 26.
The price of paddy and rice for the internal procurement drive in last Aman season was Tk27 and Tk40 respectively. The government increased the price considering the overall production cost this year.
After a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee under the Food Ministry held on November 1, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said that the government will buy a total of 300,000 tonnes of paddy and 500,000 tonnes of parboiled rice from farmers and rice mill owners.
The government has initiated ‘digital rice procurement management system’ this year. The farmers will have to supply rice at the public warehouses using the ‘Farmers App (Krishaker App)’.