Procure paddy from the farmers immediately

The authorities had set 26 April as the day to directly buy boro paddy from the farmers while the price was fixed at Tk 1,040 per maund. Usually the paddy gets ripe in the haor areas before the season. As a result, they do harvesting in those areas early, which was no different this year. In the last two weeks almost 70 per cent of the paddy have been harvested in the low lands.

The farmers usually get desperate to sell the paddy soon after harvest, as they need to repay loans. The more delayed it is, the more interest they need to pay. Besides, sellers of pesticide and other items ask for money as they had given the farmers products on credit. Many of the farmers are so poor that they do not have the cash to pay the labourers working in the field. They can only pay them when they can sell the paddy.

However, the sale of boro paddy did not start on 26 April and another week has gone already. Now the authorities say this will begin on 10 May. However, many are done with harvesting and paddy is available in the market, but the price is very low as the production was high. The growers are now selling the paddy at Tk 600-700 to middlemen and rice mill owners, whereas they were supposed to get Tk 1,040 per maund from the government. It is a great loss for them, because they had to spend around Tk 800 to grow these paddy.

When asked why they could not start the procedure, the food directorate said harvesting has not been finished in the haor areas. A list of paddy growers is being prepared and there will be a random draw to determine from whom the paddy will be purchased. Our question is – why this list was not done earlier?

This appears a very complicated process while the delay serves the interest of a quarter, mainly middlemen and rice mill owners. In reality, most of the growers fail to sell paddy to the government and in the end they sell it to the middlemen and rice mill owners at low prices. The middlemen then sell them to the government at a higher price.

Corruption is rampant in the whole process – the middlemen somehow make their way to the list of paddy growers and their names get drawn in the random draw.

The food secretary has said that they would ensure no genuine farmer can sell paddy to the government or enlist their names in the list of the farmers. We hope he will keep him promise. But the government also needs to start buying paddy directly from the farmers immediately.