The government is likely to extend rice and paddy procurement drive for another two months as only half of the procurement target of rice and paddy was achieved till August 31.
The announcement to extend procurement schedule will come up in a high profile procurement committee meeting next week, sources in the food ministry said.
In the four and a half months drive launched on April 15,7,07,000 MT of rice and 44,800 MT of paddy were procured from across the country. It is 4,93,000 tonnes less of rice and 2,55,200 tonnes of paddy against the target.
"We are procuring 3,500 MT to 4,000 MT of rice daily after the price increase. If it continues, we will only be able to procure 56,000 MT of rice in the next 13 days of the government procurement schedule. So, it is not possible to reach the target," a senior official of the Directorate of Food told the New Nation.
The procurement was not satisfactory after increasing the procurement price of rice, Food and Disaster Management Secretary Mollah Wahiduzzaman told the New Nation over phone.
He blamed the inclement weather for slow rate of rice and paddy procurement.
He added that the four members of the procurement committee would decide about the extension of the procurement drive.
Besides, a high official of the food ministry said that the procurement of rice and paddy will be extended for the next two months in the meeting scheduled to be held next month.
The government 'incentive' comes at a time when the pace of the food procurement drive seemed unlikely to achieve the yearly government target, sources said.
The authority announced the revised rate on August 10 in view of the reluctance of the traders to sell rice to the government.
The authorities have so far cancelled licences of 1,969 rice mills mostly in the country's northern areas for not selling rice and paddy to the government at the officially fixed rates.
The government has fixed the procurement target at 12 lakh tonnes of rice and three lakh tonnes of paddy this year.
Source: nation.ittefaq.com
