The food procurement office, for the first time since 1996, has bought the highest amount of aman paddy and achieved its target of buying six lakh tonnes of the grain grown in the monsoon.
It bought 6.27 lakh tonnes of aman paddy since November following harvests.
In the past 24 years, the public food office never succeeded in attaining goals of purchasing aman paddy, data from the food ministry showed.
This was the first time after 2010 that the government bought the paddy alongside rice—a decision that followed public outcry resulting from farmers' losses for prices slumping last year and growing demand to buy grains directly from farmers to ensure fair prices.
The food ministry announced to buy paddy from growers by the end of October with the objective to push up prices of the grain and help growers recoup losses, reducing its focus to buy the grain only from millers.
The food ministry estimated that the production of this year's aman paddy would cost Tk 21.55 a kilogramme (kg), down from Tk 25.30 the previous year.
It bought paddy at Tk 26 a kg based on a list of farmers supplied by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and scrutinised by upazila procurement committees, according to a senior official of the Directorate General (DG) of Food.
This has been made possible for increased monitoring by the food ministry and local administration, said the official.
During the aman paddy purchase period that officially ended last week, the DG of Food piloted procurement in 16 upazilas using mobile apps through which farmers could enroll their name.
Awareness campaigns by field level food offices also created interest among farmers to bring their produce to local procurement centres, said the official, asking not to be named as he is not authorised to talk to the media.
"They were better aware this time about the quality parameters," the official said, adding that farmers were not aware about the quality parameters for supplying paddy in the past.
They used to return disheartened as field offices would decline to take the grain because of moisture content in the grain going past the 14 per cent limit, he added.
This is the highest amount of aman paddy purchased till date, said Md Tahmidul Islam, additional secretary in charge of procurement and supply at the food ministry.
"Monitoring by ministry high-ups has paid off."
The latest purchase of aman paddy by the food office is the second highest amount of unhusked grain after boro, the principal crop.
The government bought the highest 6.70 lakh tonnes of boro in 2016, data from the food ministry showed.
Apart from paddy purchase, the DG of Food bought 3.37 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice from millers at Tk 36 per kg and 43,400 tonnes of unboiled rice during the just concluded aman purchase season, according to the food ministry data.
"It is commendable. This shows that the government can buy paddy if it has willingness," said Akhter Ahmed, country director of International Food Policy Research Institute.
"It would be beneficial for farmers if the government buys paddy directly from producers in the next boro harvesting season," he said.
As drying of boro paddy was a challenge for farmers, the government could buy paddy irrespective of the moisture content and give it to millers for drying and milling, Ahmed said.
Quazi Shahabuddin, a former director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said farmers usually have a higher marketable surplus during boro harvests compared to that of aman, the second biggest crop.
The government should purchase a higher quantity of paddy from farmers in the next boro season, he suggested.
This article was originally published on The Daily Star on March 11, 2020.