Millers gain from govt procurement drive, not farmers (Dhaka Tribune)

Dhaka Tribune published an article that stated with only Nearly three months into the grain procurement season, the food department has managed to procure less than a fifth of its promised purchase of paddy from Aman growers. With less than a month left, it is highly unlikely that it will be able to meet the target, and as a result, farmers will not get the price support that the government had planned to provide them. For years, experts and researchers have been asking the government to make an effort so that the price benefits of public sector grain procurement go directly to the farmers, and not mostly to millers and other intermediaries. IFPRI carried out a study through its USAID-funded Policy Research and Strategy Support Program (PRSSP) in Bangladesh, with the Ministry of Agriculture commissioning the task. The study noted that each year the food department buys far more rice than paddy under its food procurement program. While its purchase of paddy benefits only a small number of farmers, the lion’s share of the government-provided price supports actually end up in the hands of rice millers and by default to traders and middlemen.