Boro procurement thru ‘Krishoker App’ from 64 upazilas: Food Minister

FT ONLINE 

The government will procure Boro paddy and rice directly from farmers of one upazila in every district this season through "Krishoker App", a digital purchase process, said Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder today. 

During the Aman season, paddy and rice were collected through the digital platform from 16 upazilas on an experimental basis. 

The food minister was addressing a press briefing on the just-concluded Aman procurement drive at his ministry. 

The Aman procurement drive was successful as the government achieved almost cent percent of its target for the season. 

The paddy collection was 626,657 tonnes against the target of 625,991 tonnes. 

The government bought 337,407 tonnes of parboiled rice against the target of 337,618 tonnes and 43,401 tonnes of sundried rice against the target of 43,900 tonnes.

The digital purchase process has been introduced to facilitate farmers for selling their produces, and curb irregularities and corruption owing to the intervention of middlemen in rice collection, the minister said.  

In the previous Boro season, farmers had to sell their produces at lower prices than production costs which drew widespread criticism. 

Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzak said the government had decided to collect paddy and rice directly from small and marginal farmers to ensure fair prices of their produces. 

"During the season, we selected farmers through a lottery as the list of farmers became larger," said the minister.

The farmers from whom paddy and rice had been procured in the Aman season will be dropped from the list during the upcoming Boro collection drive, he added.