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Plea for 5 Lakh Tonne Rice Assistance

Donors skeptical about rice aid

Govt opens QMS outlets from lanuary 9

Ashfaq Wares Khan
In a fresh blow to government efforts to meet the country's immediate food shortage, donors yesterday gave sceptical views about die government's request for 5 lakh tonnes of rice as aid saying such assistance can only be delivered during humanitarian emergencies.
Instead, the donors said Bangladesh should buy the grain itself using its own foreign reserve or money raised through fresh loans from international agencies.
A few donors said they cannot make a decision on providing the aid as they do not have any verifiable figure on the food shortage.
Chief adviser's Press Secretary Syed Fahim Munaim, meanwhile, announced yesterday that the
government plans to restart open market sale (OMS) for selling rice at Tk 25 per kilogram in urban and municipal areas from January 9 and extend the countrywide VGF programmes.
A total of 45,000 tonnes of rice will be made available in January, with 25,000 tonnes for OMS and 20,000 tonnes for the government fair-price stores.
Agriculture Adviser CS Karim told The Daily Star that the government is going to import rice from the private sectors in India, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar to meet the immediate need of 10 lakh tonnes of rice until the next boro harvest around March.
"We are making all-out efforts to meet the immediate needs for rice, so we hope everyone will work
together and exercise patience," Karim said.
Foreign Adviser Iftekhar A Chowdhury yesterday met with the Thai and Vietnamese ambassadors, looking to buy 1 lakh tonne of rice from Thailand alone although half of the rice will be high-quality Basmati grain.
Iftekhar later told reporters that it would take two weeks to ship the rice from the Southeast Asian countries.
The government yesterday held a meeting with the local represen-tatives of the World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to discuss the government's
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request for 5 lakh tonnes of rice.
The government made the request to donors at a meeting on November 27, saying it would purchase another 5 lakh tonnes itself.
The overall rice shortage this year is 29 lakh tonnes.
The WFP and FAO have proposed undertaking of a crop supply assessment to review what is required but are still waiting for an official government request, acting FAO representative Lalita Bhattacharya told The Daily Star yesterday.
WFP resident representative Douglas Brodenck told The Daily Star that the UN system can provide food aid in case of emergencies but the government will have to appeal to individual donors to arrange the money for the 5 lakh tonnes of rice.
He, however, said the WFP is ready to assist the government in procuring and shipping the rice and is already bringing in 30,000 tonnes of nee by the end of January for the cyclone-hit areas to lessen the government's burden.
A number of donor countries also advised the government to ask international lending agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if they are in need of additional funds, according to donor agency sources.
A high official of one donor agency told The Daily Star that with a foreign reserve of around $5.5 billion Bangladesh should purchase the 5 lakh tonnes of rice--which is estimated to cost around $200 million -with its own money.
Another senior official said, "Until we have proper numbers, we cannot take a view on the matter." Senior officials of other donor countries echoed the view, saying they are waiting for the WFP assessments to decide on the matter.
Donors also suggested long-term government measures to increase agriculture production, ease fertiliser supply, and better manage food inflation to meet the recurrent food shortages in the country.