Dhaka, Dec 27 – Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque on Sunday said that aiming to remove the shortage and control prices in the rice markets, the government is going to purchase 5 lakh metric tonnes of rice.
“Excessive floods and five-month-long heavy rains have damaged the Aush and Aman this year, he said, adding that especially 1.5 lakh hectares of Aman paddy were spoiled which has increased the rice price in markets,” he said.
The minister came up with the remarks while inaugurating a research centre at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute under Agriculture Ministry virtually.
Beside the government private sector will be also allowed to import rice, he said adding that already the rice import tax has been reduced to 25 per cent.
“The government has taken all over steps to control the prices in the rice market. We have some shortage of rice, the market price will be normal if we manage to import rice shortly,” he added.
Earlier in August, Abdur Razzaque said that this year’s flood has damaged crops on over 1.58 lakh hectares of lands, causing losses worth Tk 1,323 crore.
He said approximately 2.57 hectares of paddy fields were inundated that affected 12,72,151 farmers in 37 districts.
Flood has damaged Aush paddy worth Tk 334 cr, Aman Tk 380 cr, vegetables Tk 235 cr and jute Tk 211 cr, he said.
Agricultural inputs worth Tk 17.54 cr have been distributed among the 2,39,631 farmers in the remote areas, he stated. – UNB
