Rejaul Karim Byron and Wasim Bin Habib

In the wake of depleting food stock and sluggish public procurement of foodgrains, the government has started providing cash instead of rice and wheat to implement its Test Relief and Food for Work programmes.

Those who carry out tasks such as repair of roads, drains and culverts under the schemes will get cash till the end of the current fiscal year, food ministry officials told this newspaper yesterday.

Every year, the government takes up rural infrastructure development schemes meant for creating temporary employment opportunities for the poor.

It allocates three to four lakh tonnes of rice and wheat for paying the workers under the programmes. In this year’s budget, Tk 1,600 crore has been allocated for the purpose, said the ministry officials.

The change in payment method follows the government’s failure to replenish food reserve and achieve its procurement target of rice and paddy during the last Boro harvest and this Aman season.

The country’s food reserve dwindled to 6.47 lakh tonnes last month. In July last year, the government had a rice stock of 11.88 lakh tonnes.

During the same period in 2019, the food department had a stock of 16.74 lakh tonnes of grains, according to data from the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit of the food ministry.

The stock started falling in June last year as distribution under the social safety net and other government programmes continued despite sluggish procurement of foodgrains.

Farmers and millers refrained from selling foodgrains to the food office at the government-fixed rates as the prices were soaring.

An increase in distribution of cereal among those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and recurring floods also contributed to the drop in the stock, said the food ministry officials.