The New Nation - Internet Edition

Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat

The government's paddy procurement target in Lalmonirhat is unlikely to achieve this season as the District Food Office failed to purchase even a single kilogram. The failure is atributed to its higher price in the market than the price fixed by the government

The procurement drive started accross the country on May 1 and continued till August 31. But as the drive failed to achieve the target within the stipulated time the government extended the drive till Oct 31.

In the second spell of the drive, the procurement centres in the Lalmonirhat district headquarters, Aditmari, Kaligonj, Hatibandha and Patgram upazilas could not purchase even a single kilogram of paddy.

According to the District Food Office, millers and farmers are showing reluctance in selling paddy to the government procurement centres as they are geting higher prices from the local markets. Per kilogram of paddy is being sold at Tk 13 at the local markets while the government had fixed the price Tk 11.25.

On the other hand, rice is being sold at Tk 20 when the government had fixed price at Tk 18.

District Food Officials said they could purchase 35,120 tonnes of rice against the target of 23,923 tonnes and zero tonnes of paddy against the target of 4,525 tonnes till September 23.

A Food Official said low government price and the various terms and conditions (such as chita, dryness etc) imposed by the government are mainly responsible for not achieving the paddy target