AMIDST the fear of famine across the world influenced by the novel coronavirus, the farmers of Bangladesh are selling their paddy at lower prices to rice millers and hoarders as the government has not initiated the procurement that supposed to start on April 26. The government will buy 8 lakh tonnes of paddy from farmers across the country for Tk 26 a kg this season. Meanwhile, cash-strapped farmers of Sylhet region have alleged that they sold sacks of paddy for around half of what the government had announced. An overwhelming majority of the farmers cultivate the paddy by taking loans at high-interest rates and they could not afford to wait. We insist the government should initiate the paddy procurement at a higher price so that money to be circulated. It will be also helpful to deter famine by pushing forward wheels of the economy. According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, paddy was cultivated in 474,195 hectares this year. This year over 2,796,000 tonnes of paddy is expected to have been produced. More than 41 per cent of the production has been harvested as of last Sunday. Each farmer will be allowed to sell a maximum of three tonnes to the government this year. It doesn’t require an economist to say that conventional method for revamping the economy will not work in the pandemic. When some of the economists suggest printing currency and taking labour dense project to inject money in the rural economy, some others gave prescription for cutting the cost of unnecessary and political projects. Whatever method the government takes, its first priority must be protecting the farmers and marginal-income group rural people to tame the impact of COVID-19 on their livelihood. The government should not let spoil food crops, vegetables, fish, poultry, milk, and other agro products when millions of people are nearly starving. The government departments should purchase agro products from the farmers to ensure food security at this crucial moment.
The farmers should get full support from the government to extend farming to keep uninterrupted the supply chain of food.
