FE Report

The government's Boro procurement drive ended Wednesday with the overall food-grain collection missing the official target of 1.2 million tonnes even after extension of the timeframe twice.

According to official sources, the total rice procured until the stipulated time fell short of the target by over 40,000 tonnes.

They, however, found a shortfall in the paddy collection responsible for the situation.

"The collection of rice has almost reached the target but that of paddy remained more than 30 per cent below the target," said an official.

The government had set the target of purchasing 1.05 million tonnes of boiled rice, 50,000 tonnes of non-boiled (atap) rice and 150,000 tonnes of paddy under its Boro collection drive while the purchase rates were fixed at Tk 22, Tk 21 and Tk 14 per kg respectively.

Citing provisional figures, officials said the total food-grain collection in the form of rice was recorded at about 1.16 million tonnes until the deadline.

The officials at food and disaster management ministry, however, termed the Boro collection drive more or less 'successful.'

The government had extended the August 31 procurement deadline twice - 15 days each time - in order to make up for the overall collection shortfall, they mentioned.

Although the government had earlier intended to raise its Boro procurement target, later it dropped the plan due mainly to lack of sufficient storage capacity, despite positive response from local rice suppliers.

About the warehouse problem, the effective storage capacity of the existing government food godowns is estimated at 1.3 million tonnes.

Of the total capacity, the government has now an estimated stock of 1.2 million tonnes of food-grains.

In this situation, the government will also require storing a significant amount of food-grains for the current Aman season along with the normal storage of wheat, which would be available either through government import or overseas food-aid, the official observed.