THE government’s having been able to procure 10 per cent of aman rice from millers and 6 per cent of paddy from farmers against the targets in about four months since the drive began on November 15, 2020 stands testimony to the government’s glaring failure in procurement, adequacy in procurement policy, collusive leniency towards errant millers and, finally, inability at learning from past mistakes. The government had plans to procure 650,000 tonnes of aman rice from millers for Tk 37 a kilogram and 200,000 tonnes of paddy from farmers for Tk 26 a kilogram during the drive that is scheduled to end on March 15. But it could buy only 71,000 tonnes of rice and 12,000 tonnes of paddy. A situation such as this is deplorable in view of the depletion of the government rice stock, which is said better not to fall below 1.25 million tonnes but declined to a little more than half a million tonnes on March 10, when the database was last updated. The rice stock has remained almost static since January 10, when the database was previously updated. But a year ago, the government had a rice stock of 1.5 million tonnes.

This could potentially threaten food security. The step that the government has taken to tackle the situation — the import of 1 million tonnes of rice under private and government-to-government schemes already done or in the process of being done — also has worrying implications on local rice production. The failure of the government in meeting the procurement target is unacceptable as a similar failure marked the boro procurement, which began in late April and was scheduled to end in early May in 2020. Even after the period that was  extended until September 15, the government could procure only 940,000 tonnes of boro rice against the target of 1.95 million as the millers reneged on their deal with the government. While procurement from farmers this time failed because of low pricing, lower than the production cost, by the government, procurement from millers failed as they are interested in stockpiling the rice for more profits from sales on the market during shortage, artificial or natural. The government should, therefore, change its procurement policy by buying paddy directly from farmers and by increasing the price that should pay the farmers for more than the production cost. The punitive measure that the government meted out to millers for their failure to supply boro rice was not deterrent enough, which encourages millers to keep reneging on the deals. This time, the government is reported not to have planned any action against the errant millers as it has planned to tackle the crisis by way of rice import, which is also unacceptable on another count.

The government made the rice import decision in December 2020 when the aman harvest was at its peak. But this will, in all likelihood, take a heavy toll on farmers by pushing down the prices and this will afford undue advantage to millers. The government must, therefore, overhaul its rice procurement policy, now fraught with problems, and take punitive action deterrent enough against millers for unwillingness to supply rice. It must also stop making knee-jerk import decision so that rice growers could be saved.