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Govt’s food security not satisfactory

Crop loss, poor procurement lead to paltry 2.54 lakh tonne food grain stock

Rejaul Karim Byron
The government s present stock of rice and wheat is 2.54 lakh metric tons less than that of October last
year mainly due to production losses in .natural calamities and
given that rice is in short supply.
According to official data as of Wednesday, the stock of food, grains was 6.17 lakh tonnes with 4.53 lakh tonnes of rice and 1.63
price hikes on the global market.
Sources said measures are underway to import rice from India through government agencies.
Besides, the foreign ministry has contacted envoys of Thailand and Vietnam to discuss import from there as well.
The food and disaster manage-
ment ministry says food security stock at this time should be 8 lakh tonnes while economists say it should be at least 10 lakh tonnes
lakh tonnes of wheat. It was 8.71 lakh tonnes at the end of October,
2007 and 6.28 lakh tonnes in October, 2006.
2007 and 6.28 lakh tonnes in October, 2006.
Asked what should be done to contain the spiralling prices of rice, Uttam Dev of civil society think-
tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) said the government should
form a special committee to increase food stock through quick import.
Talking to The Daily Star, he said since import through government agencies usually takes a long time
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for bureaucratic tangles, a committee of that sort would help cut short the time.
Uttam, a research fellow of the CPD, also suggested lobbying the donors for quick release of food aid pledged after Cyclone Sidr.
Meanwhile, the government has been having difficulty procuring Aman. It wanted to buy at least two lakh tonnes, but farmers appear reluctant as they have been offered much below the market price.
The rate for per kilogram rice has been fixed atTk 20 and paddy Tk 13, whereas the current market price is Tk32-35andTkl8 20.
It is also struggling to increase food stock through import as prices this year are much higher on the international market.
The food ministry estimated the overall food deficit in die current fiscal at 29.60lakh tonnes. Of that, the deficit in rice is 14 lakh tonnes and wheat 15.60 lakh tonnes.
The demand for rice has been calculated to be 2.85 crore tonnes and the production 2.71 crore tonnes.
Thegovernmentdatashowwheat requirement for the current fiscal is 24 lakh tonnes while the production target 8.4 lakh tonnes.
According to the Bangladesh Bank, the amount of rice and wheat imported in July-October of2007 was 13.16 lakh tonnes while it was 5.85 lakh tonnes on the corresponding period in 2006.
On the other hand, the food ministry said import of rice and wheat was 16.2 lakh tonnes in July-Novemberof2007.
“The volume of rice and wheat imported in recent times is higher than the previous years. Still, we are faced with a crisis due to domestic production losses caused by floods and cyclone," said a food ministry official requesting not to be named.
Agriculture ministry sources said the production target in the current fiscal for Aus was 22 lakh tonnes and
for Aman, the main crop, was 1.30 lakh.
According to the government assessment, at least 14 lakh tonnes of Aman has been lost in Cyclone Sidr and floods last year, but CPD, an independent think-tank, put it at over 22 lakh tonnes.
The losses of Aman production may be even more, reported our correspondents from different districts.
There is no official figure of Aus production though its harvest ended in July last year.
Meanwhile, a two-member delegation of the food ministry will visit India to discuss matters relating to the 5 lakh tonnes of rice that the Indian government had pledged to export to Bangladesh following the devastatingstorm of November 15.
The delegation will seek to finalise the price, time of delivery and ports to be used.
“The five lakh tonnes, if imported soon, will obviously help things by increasing supply and bringing down the price." observed a governmentofficial.