Rural poor may get rice at Tk 10 a kg

The Directorate General of Food has proposed to sell rice to the rural ultra-poor at Tk 10 each kilogram to help reduce poverty -- a move that will require the state to spend Tk 835 crore in subsidy a month.

The food office wants to sell 30 kilograms of rice per month to each ultra-poor household during the lean periods of March-April and September-October, as per the proposal.

Some one crore ultra-poor in rural areas will be benefitted from the scheme.

The government had introduced a similar project in February 2011 to distribute rice at lower than the market price to the ultra-poor at the grassroots level. Called the “fair price card” scheme, it is currently dormant.

The directorate has now sought to revive it with a view to disposing of its huge stockpile of grain to create space in its warehouses for new arrivals, said Foiz Ahmed, its director general.

“Besides, the ultra-poor at the union level do not get any food support from the government like those at the upazila level get in the form of open market sales.”

About three lakh tonnes of rice will be needed each month for the scheme, according to the proposal sent to the food ministry early this month.

The proposal is now awaiting approval from the government.

Ahmed is hopeful that the approval will come by the end of March and the food office will be able to implement the scheme right away.

At present, the directorate has about 14.35 lakh tonnes of grains, including 10.72 lakh tonnes of rice.

It plans to purchase two lakh tonnes of wheat in April and 10 lakh tonnes of boro rice in May.

The government has already cut the prices of rice and wheat for open market sales, for the second time in four months, to reduce the large stocks in time for the procurement season.

The price of rice was slashed 25 percent to Tk 15 per kilogram and wheat flour 10 percent to Tk 17.

So far, the directorate could sell about 1,400 tonnes of rice out of the allocated 3.25 lakh tonnes for the current fiscal year.

The food office expects that two lakh tonnes of rice could be distributed through OMS during the March-April period of this year.

The remaining one lakh tonnes of rice could be transferred for distribution among the poor at the grassroots level.

Yesterday, the retail prices of coarse rice stood between Tk 32 and Tk 34 each kilogram in Dhaka, down 8.33 percent from a year earlier, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, rice millers are fearing that the initiative will lead to a decline in rice and paddy prices and affect farmers at a time when the paddy prices, particularly the coarse variety, are on the downturn.

“It is going to affect the prices of rice, especially the coarse rice,” said Md Abdur Rashid, president of the Auto Major and Husking Mills Owners Association, adding that the coarse rice prices remain lower due to its ample supply.

The average price of coarse paddy is now Tk 500 each maund, down from more than Tk 600 in December, when harvesting of aman crop was going on, Rashid added.

But Ahmed of the food directorate said the farmers will not be affected by the scheme.