Food procurement 'nil' in Barisal division
Stocks meagre to face calamity
Our Correspondent, Barisal
The food department could not purchase any rice or paddy in the six southern districts under its Aman procurement programme, launched on November 25 with a target of 7,645 tonnes. On the other hand there are only 25,000 tonnes of rice and 525 tonnes of wheat in government godowns, which are too small to face any natural calamity, officials said. The stocks are lesser than those in any previous year, they said. There is little hope of making any procurement during the programme period which will expire on February 28 because the market prices of rice and paddy are higher than government-fixed procurement prices, they said. Market prices of paddy and rice are Tk 950 and Tk 1650 per quintal respectively while the government rates are Tk 860 and Tk 1319. The procurement target is 1,168 tonnes for Barisal, 645 for Bhola, 792 for Pirojpur, 546 for Jhalokathi , 1,120 for Barguna and 2,800 tonnes for Patuakhali.
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