With a target to collect nine lakh tonnes of rice and one lakh tonne of paddy during the current Boro season (April 25 to end of August), the government has fixed the procurement prices of rice and paddy at Tk 14.50 and Tk 9.25 per kilogram respectively.

Meanwhile, the government's food reserve has diminished to less than 4 lakh tonnes, less than half the critical food-security reserve level of 8.5 lakh tonnes.

The low food reserve is attributed to poor procurement performances during the last Aman and wheat seasons, low production of Aman and wheat, and the release of 1.78 lakh tonnes of rice under a recently ended OMS (open market sale) programme aimed at offsetting high market price of rice.

The Aman and wheat procurement drives failed mainly because farmers sold their produce on the open market as the government offered prices were much lower.

According to food ministry statistics, the government set a target of procuring a total of 1.5 lakh tonnes of Aman rice and 73,000 tonnes of paddy during the last rice procurement seasons from November, 2004 to February, 2005, but could procure only three tonnes.Similarly, the government could purchase only 135 tonnes of wheat against the procurement target of 50,000 tonnes during its procurement drive from March 24 until yesterday.

Against this backdrop, the government had to import 70,000 tonnes of rice in recent months and is now in the process of importing 20,000 tonnes of wheat to replenish the fast-diminishing stock of public granaries.

Starting today, the government plans to offer Boro growers prices at the existing market rates, which are estimated at Tk 14.50 and Tk 9.25 per kilogram for rice and paddy respectively. The corresponding figures offered by the government during last year's Boro season were Tk 13.25 and Tk 8.40 respectively.

In the last meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee on April 6, several senior ministers expressed dissatisfaction over the low food stock and the slow pace in the food procurement drive, and asked the officials concerned to accelerate the drive for increasing food stocks to meet any emergency.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Deputy Minister for Food and Disaster Management Asadul Habib Dulu expressed optimism about the success of the government's current procurement drive.

The minister hinted at earlier projections that put Boro output to be hovering around 140 to 145 lakh tonnes this year.

On the question of a diminishing food stock in government godowns, he said, "During the pre-Boro period (March-April), granaries are always short of food stock. The granaries will soon be filled up once the Boro procurement drive kicks off."