January 26: The government has failed to meet its paddy procurement target despite setting an ambitious goal. The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) is facing a shortage of paddy at a time when the country witnessed an increase in production of paddy this year. FMTC is facing a shortage of paddy as it failed to purchase paddy and rice as per its target.

It is mandatory for the government to keep a stock of 33,000 metric tons of food grains for emergency use. However, the government currently has a stock of only 13,000 metric tons of food.

The FMTC had announced to purchase 50,200 metric tons of paddy worth Rs 1.74 billion from 11 centers across the country this year. However, the FMTC has purchased only 4,660 metric tons of paddy from 5 centers across the country so far this year. The company informed that it has not been able to purchase paddy from six purchase centres except those set up at Rajapur, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi, Mahendranagar and Janakpur.

The company's chief executive officer Mohan Prakash Chand said that the FMTC is yet to begin procurement at the purchase centers in Bhairahawa, Birgunj, Lahan, Biratnagar, Birtamod and Jumla.

According to Chand, the FMTC was unable to purchase paddy from farmers in those areas as the businessmen purchased paddy from them in those places at a better rate than the support price fixed by the government. The government has set the minimum support price of thick paddy at Rs 3,198 per quintal and medium paddy at Rs 3,362 per quintal this year.

“Many farmers did not sell the paddy to us this year because the businessmen offered Rs 300 per quintal more than the price fixed by the government. We also wish that the farmers get better price for their produce. At the moment, the FMTC has less amount of stock than required. Therefore, we are under pressure to purchase food grains anyhow,” said Chand.

“But that doesn’t mean we are allowed to pay the farmers more than the market price. If we purchase paddy at a higher cost, we will be compelled to sell rice at a higher rate to the general public,” he added.

FMTC has purchased very less amount of paddy even in places where it was available. The company purchased only 802 tons of paddy from Nepalgunj against the target of purchasing 7000 metric tons of paddy. Likewise, it purchased 1,680 metric tons of paddy from Rajapur against the target of 9,500 tons.

Similarly, FMTC had set a target of purchasing 8000 metric tons of paddy from Dhangadhi but was able to purchase only 1,878 metric tons.

In Mahendranagar, the FMCT had set a target of purchasing 1,500 metric tons but it managed to procure only 295 metric tons.  Likewise, the company purchased only four metric tons of paddy from Janakpur against the target of 5,500 metric tons.

According to the statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, paddy production increased by 4.33 percent this year compared to last year. In Fiscal Year 2079/80, the country produced in 54,86,472 metric tons of paddy, which increased to 57,24,234 tons in the current fiscal year.

As the FMTC is unable to purchase paddy from the farmers, it has now issued a tender notice to purchase paddy. However, FMTC officials say that suppliers have not submitted any proposal so far. Chand says that the importers have now shown any interest to supply rice to the FMTC as the cost is likely to increase after India restricted exports of paddy.