Aman procurement prices revised, targets unchanged

The government has kept its Aman paddy and rice procurement targets unchanged from last year but revised the prices, raising the rate for paddy by Tk 1 per kg and cutting those for both types of rice by Tk 1.

For the 2026-27 fiscal year, the government plans to buy 3 lakh tonnes of paddy, 5 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice and 50,000 tonnes of non-parboiled rice at Tk 35, Tk 49 and Tk 48 per kg, respectively.

A food ministry press release said paddy procurement would begin on November 14 and rice procurement on December 1. Both programmes will continue until February 28, 2027.

Food Minister Afroza Khanam announced the decision after a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee (FPMC) at the Secretariat in Dhaka yesterday.

The committee finalised the procurement plan after reviewing the country’s overall food situation, farmers’ interests, production costs and market conditions, among other factors, she said.

The paddy procurement price was set by adding a fair profit margin to farmers’ production costs, with priority given to ensuring that they did not suffer losses, the minister said.

Ensuring fair prices for farmers’ produce is the government’s main objective, she added.

The government is also prepared to buy more paddy than the announced target if farmers want to sell additional quantities. No farmer will be turned away because of the procurement limit, and necessary arrangements will be made to buy the additional paddy, Afroza said.

However, agricultural economist Jahangir Alam Khan, a former director general of the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute, believes both the procurement targets and prices should have been higher, given the rise in production costs this season.

Production expenses have increased by 15 to 20 percent due to higher diesel and fertiliser prices. The paddy procurement price should have been raised by at least Tk 2 to Tk 3 per kg to ensure a fair return for farmers, he told The Daily Star.

Jahangir also said the government should have planned to procure around 5 lakh tonnes of paddy directly from farmers. Higher purchases could have supported market prices and improved farmers’ earnings, he added.

With the government setting a specific procurement target, the main beneficiaries are likely to be rice suppliers rather than the farmers who grow the paddy, he said.

Source: The Daily Star