Rice forms the very foundation of food security in Bangladesh as the Bangalees will continue to eat rice as a staple in the decades ahead as they did since time immemorial. Even in villages today, farmers, who toil day and night, like to take three meals of rice a day. Various kinds of cakes are still being made out of rice.

But then experts have warned, any distortion in rice prices in the country due to losses farmers incur will not only drive farmers from cultivating paddy to other lucrative vocations but also pose a serious threat to food security in the long run. Although the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has predicted good rice harvests in 2015 and 2016, it is still unpredictable as to whether such harvests could be sustained as paddy cultivation is highly dependent on vagaries of nature.

Huge imports of cheaper rice from neighbouring India by the private sector into the country have already made paddy cultivation uneconomic in terms of prices. It was found that imported rice cost 20-25 per cent less than that of local rice. For example, import cost of Swarna variety is Tk 22.5 to Tk 24.5 for a kilogram when it is Tk 27 to Tk 29 for the local variety.

And millers have done what they are bound to do in an open market operation. About 60 per cent of them stopped milling rice in the Aman season.

Official statistics show, private importers brought in 1.3 million tonnes of rice from India in July-April period of this financial year (FY'15) when overall import was 0.374 million tonnes in FY'14.

Realising the gravity of the situation, the ministry of food has already asked the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to impose duty on rice imports to protect the farmers from price debacle. But then the NBR is yet to rise to the occasion.

On the other hand, thanks to timely distribution of seed and fertilizer, favourable weather and uninterrupted supply of electricity, the production of paddy, particularly Aman and Aus, is set to increase in the current fiscal year. The rise is predicted despite a fall in harvesting area.

Aman production of financial year 2014-15 has been estimated around 14 million metric tons, an increase of 1.3 per cent compared with 13 million metric tons in the same period a year earlier, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). During the period, Aus production has been estimated at 232.8 million metric tons, which is 0.08 per cent higher over the last year despite declining harvesting area by 0.6 per cent.

The NBR should take a quick decision on imposition of import duties on cheaper rice imports temporarily. This is because farmers do not know what the NBR is or what duties mean. They care about prices their produces fetch in local markets and accordingly take decisions on cropping.

Source:thefinancialexpress-bd.com