At a time when rice prices are on the increase, the government has decided to shelve its earlier plan to export it. Some limited export could have brought a buoyancy in the rice market helping the farmers to get better prices.

Obviously, however, the government wants to keep cereal stock at a healthy level when the rice market is showing signs of instability in terms of prices and availability. Between export earnings and maintaining a buffer stock of food the government has opted for the latter course.

The food minister is being cautious apprehending that a sudden natural calamity may affect production and push the prices up. Our run of luck with weather may not last indefinitely.

The spiralling prices of rice is in large part due to huge paddy purchase by millers and the effect of cold wave which made drying of paddy difficult for them.

As it is, output of aus in the current fiscal 2012-2013 fell 3 percent to 22.58 lakh tonnes owing to reduced acreage, going by a Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' estimate. Aman output is likely to be level with last year's production.

The president of the wholesalers' association blames huge purchases on speculation of a low production in the next boro season, the chief component of our rice basket. There is also the factor of delayed plantation due to cold weather which has given rise to an apprehension of a lower output.

All the same, we have an intrinsic self-sufficiency in food, particularly when we have been free of calamity ravages for a fewyears in a row.

Now the problem is storing all the surplus rice. A news item some days ago, underscored that some 10.5 lakh tonnes of rice need to be scientifically preserved in good silos. Also hoarding among rice traders will have to be cut