The southwestern district of Khulna is celebrating a bumper harvest of Aman paddy this year, sparking joy and optimism among local farmers. Growers and others are preparing for harvesting the paddy and sharpening their sickles as they hope for a record-breaking production this time. In the nine upazilas of Khulna, farmers are cleaning their fields and homes in preparation for the harvest which is expected to begin within the next one to two weeks. Though this year the country experienced a heavy rainfall, which brought both challenges and blessings for the farmers, the golden fields of paddy bring smiles to the farmers. With the rising costs of fertilizers, seeds, pesticides and labour, the growers are hopeful for a good harvest, provided the weather remains favorable. The Directorate General of Food has announced that the government will procure 51,973 metric tonnes (MT) of paddy from 10 districts under Khulna division. Besides, 74,335 MT of boiled rice and 5,925 MT of parboiled rice will also be collected. Agriculture officials said that the coastal Koyra and Dakop upazials have witnessed bumper yields of Aman paddy this year. According to the Koyra Upazila Agricultural Office, 16,323 hectares of land were brought under the Aman cultivation, while Dakop adhered to 19,360 hectares. Read: Bumper Aman paddy yield brings joy to farmers in Chapainawabganj Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury, regional food controller for Khulna, said that this year’s production may exceed the target set earlier. Shashadhar Sana, a farmer from Angti Hara Paschim Beel, said he planted Aman paddy on one bigha of land and expected to harvest about 30 maunds per bigha. He said his family was preparing to make pithas from the newly harvested rice. Mizanur Rahman Babu from Sataliya Purbo Beel shared the same sentiment that he planted paddy on 22 bighas of land and now expect to gain 24-25 monds per bigha. Master Abdul Khalek, a farmer from Koyra Sadar union, praised the efforts of the local agricultural officers, saying that they were very dedicated and always visited fields. Read more: Farmers busy in harvesting paddy in Naogaon Koyra Upazila Agricultural Officer Md Abdullah Al Mamun said despite some challenges the farmers faced the yield would surpass expectations.

Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), the state-run marketing agency, will further procure a total of 2.09 crore litres (20.9 million litres) of soybean oil from local and international suppliers without any tender process. The TCB will also procure 8,000 metric tons of lentil through open tender. Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) in a virtual meeting on Thursday approved a number of proposals in this regard. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting while members of the cabinet body attended it virtually. The entire products will be procured for its ongoing open market sales (OMS) programme which has been introduced to control prices of essential commodities across the country. For long the TCB has been procuring some essential items from local and international suppliers to sell those in the local market under the OMS programme.  As per the proposals, some 44 lakh litres of soybean oil will be procured through direct purchase method (DPM) from Sena Edible Oil Industries., Dhaka, at a cost of Tk 81.18 crore with each litre costing at Tk 184.5. The TCB will procure 1.10 crore litres of soybean oil from Zad Al Rahil International LLC Sultanate of Oman (Local Agent: Sky Trading) through DPM at a cost of Tk 151.73 crore with litre coasting at 152.86 . Read: TCB to procure 2.75 crore litres of soybean oil It will procure another 55 lakh litre of soybean oil from Shun Shing Edible Oil Ltd., Dhaka through DPM at a cost of Tk 101.47 crore. Each litre will cost at Tk 185.5. The TCB will procure 8,000 metric tons of lentil from Arabel Bakliyat Hububat Santic A.S (Local Agent: BINQ, Dhaka, at a cost of Tk 81.57 crore. Each kg will cost at Tk 101.97.  Besides, as per a proposal of the Ministry of Industries, Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will import 30,000 MT of bulk granular urea fertilizer from Fertiglobe Distribution Limited, the UAE at a cost of Tk 153.60 crore under a state level agreement. As per a proposal of the Agriculture Ministry, another 30,000 MT of TSP fertiliser will be imported by Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) from OCP, S.A of Morocco at a cost of Tk 153.86 crore under a state level agreement. The Cabinet body approved a proposal of Bangladesh Hi-tech Park Authority under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division to award a Tk 424.54 crore contract to for Western Engineering Pvt. Ltd., for building of the infrastructure of Sheikh Hasina Institute of Frontier Technology in Madaripur. Read: TCB to procure 1.65 crore liter of soybean oil, 8,000 MT of lentil A proposal of the Roads and Highway Department received the nod of the CCGP to award a Tk 1,232.95 crore to Joint Venture of (1) HEGO, China; (2) Mir Akhter, Bangladesh for civil works under the package lot No-DS-o5 of the Sasec Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor Road Development project. The Cabinet body approved a proposal of the Chattagram WASA to raise the cost of its consultant NIJ Consultants Co. Ltd., for Karnaphuli Water Supply Project (phase-2) by Tk 24.52 crore.

State-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will procure 1.65 crore (16.5 million) liters of soybean oil from local private firms and 8,000 metric tons of lentil from a Turkish supplier for its ongoing open market sale (OMS) programme. The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) approved three separate proposals in its meeting on Wednesday. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting. Import of 90,000 MT of fertiliser also received approval of the committee. Officials said the purchase of soybean oil and lentils by state-marketing agency TCB is part of its move to run the ongoing OMS operation to sell some essential produces at subsidized rate for the low-income group. Earlier, the CCGP gave nods to similar proposals placed by the Commerce Ministry on behalf of the TCB. The TCB is a subsidiary body of the Commerce Ministry. As per the proposals, the TCB will procure 1.10 crore (11 million) liters of soybean oil from local Meghna Edible Oil Refinery Limited at a cost of Tk 189.03 crore with each liter costing Tk 171.85, down from previous rate of Tk 185 per liter. Read: TCB starts selling essential items for 1 crore low-income families It will purchase 5.5 million (55 lakh) liters of soybean oil from local Super Oil Refinery limited at Tk 87.97 crore, with each liter costing 156.95 per liter, down from previous Tk 185 per liter. The TCB will procure some 8000 metric tons of lentil from a Turkish firm at a cost of Tk 70.98 crore, with each kilogram Tk 88.73, down from Tk 110 per kg. The CCGP also approved two proposals of the Agriculture Ministry to import a total of 90,000 metric tons of fertiliser from abroad under state-level agreements. As per the proposals, the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) will import 50,000 metric tons of MOP fertiliser from Canadian Commercial Corporation at Tk 437.05 crore and 40,000 MT of DAP fertiliser from OCP, SA of Morocco at a cost of Tk 302.37 crore.

Trading Corporation of Bangladesh will directly procure some 125 lakh litres (12.5 million litre) of soybean oil and 5000 kilogram of lentil from 7 local suppliers without following any competitive process. Cabinet committee on government purchase (CCGB) in a meeting, with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair, gave approval to the proposals in this regard. Commerce Ministry placed the proposals on behalf of the TCB, the state marketing agency. As per the proposals, some 40 lakh (4 million) litre of the edible will be procured from Super Oil Refinery at Tk 173.95 per liter while remaining 85 lakh (8.5 million) litre will be purchased from three suppliers at Tk 171 per liter. Of the three suppliers, Shun Shing Edible Oil Ltd, a subsidiary company of Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited (BEOL), will supply 20 lakh litre while Bashundhara Multi Food Products Limited (BMFPL), a subsidiary of Bashundhara Group, will supply 35 lakh litre and Sena Edible Oil Industry, a subsidiary of Sena Kalyan Sangstha Bangladesh, will provide 30,000 litre of soybean oil. The 40 lakh litre of the edible oil will cost Tk 69.58 crore while 85 lakh litre will cost Tk 145.35 crore. Some 5000 kg of lentil will be procured from three suppliers at cost of Tk 55.50 crore with each kg price at Tk 111. Of these, some 3000 kg will be purchased from ACI Limited, 1000 kg from Nadil Traders and 1000 from Roy Traders. Read: TCB to procure soyabean oil, lentil and sugar from business groups Abdul Barik, Additional secretary of the Cabinet, who briefed reporters about the outcomes of the Cabinet body meeting, said the TCB will procure the commodities through direct procurement method (DPM) showing the cause of emergency needs. The TCB, a subordinate body of the Commerce Ministry, will sell these goods to people at controlled rates as part of the government’s open market sale (OMS) programe, he added. The CCGP also approved another 13 proposals from different ministries. Of these, the state-owned Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will procure some 120,000 metric tons of fertilizer from four international suppliers. Of these, 30,000 mt of bagged prilled urea fertilizer will be procured from Muntajat of Qatar at a cost Tk 152.50 crore, while another 30,000 mt bagged granular from Kafco at Tk 151.57 crore. Some 30,000 mt of bulk granular urea will be imported from SABIC Agri-nutrients Company of Saudi Arabia at Tk 151.88 crore and another 30,000 mt from the same Saudi company at Tk 149.08 crore. Each metric ton of urea from the four lots will cost between $443.35 and $524.50 which earlier cost between $588 and $557.87 per metric ton. This shows that the cost of urea fertilizer is decreasing in the global market which had crossed $1000 immediately after the Russia-Ukraine war began. Six separate proposals from the Chattagram Port Authority under the Ministry of Shipping received the nod of the committee to hire six berth operators at the port for next 5 years.

The government on Wednesday started the procurement of Boro paddy and rice across the country. Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder inaugurated the nationwide procurement of Boro paddy through a videoconference at 11:30am. Boro paddy is being procured directly from farmers at Tk 27 per kg.    The Directorate General of Food will collect 6.50 lakh metric tonnes of Boro paddy directly from farmers as well as 10 lakh metric tonnes of boiled rice and 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of non-boiled rice from the rice millers during the current Boro season. Also read: Govt to buy 11.50 lakh mts Boro rice The boiled rice is being procured at Tk 40 per kg, while the non-boiled one at Tk 39 per kg. The Food Minister directed the officials and employees concerned to be careful so that no farmer would be subjected to any sort of harassment going to provide paddy to godown. He also asked them not to compromise with the quality of paddy and rice during this procurement. Sadhan Chandra asked all concerned to expedite the Boro collection following health hygiene rules, including social distancing and masking up. Also read: Farmers in Bishwanath happy with Boro yield   The minister asked them to fix the problems of farmers with due importance during registration through apps in the upazilas where the app registration system has been introduced to procure paddy. Food Secretary Dr Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum, Food Director General Sheikh Muzibar Rahman and other high officials from the ministry and the Directorate General of Food were connected with the virtual inauguration. Also read: Jagannathpur farmers fret over stagnant water as boro yield hit Besides, officials from district administrations, district food offices, mill owners and farmers’ representatives from Netrakona, Kishoreganj, Naogaon, Bogura, Dinajpur, Sylhet, Habiganj, Maulvibazar and Sunamganj districts were connected with the inaugural event through the virtual platform.