Bangladesh launched a drive on Wednesday to buy 1.5 million tonnes of rice from farmers to boost its emergency food stocks, and urged the United Nations to treat the food shortage issue as a priority.
"We will buy from 1.2 to 1.5 million tonnes of rice or paddy from the farmers," said Pius Costa, director general of the food department at the food and disaster management ministry.
"The worldwide food crunch is (a) significant enough issue for the U.N. to focus (on)," Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Foreign Affairs Adviser to the interim government told reporters.
He said the issue could be addressed at an UNCTAD conference in Accra, Ghana, next week.
Bangladesh, facing acute food shortages, has just started its main boro rice harvest, which is forecast to produce 17 million tonnes of rice to boost supplies and ease prices.
"We have fixed the procurement price at 28 taka ($0.41) and 18 taka ($0.26) for a kg of rice and paddy, respectively," the official told Reuters.
The country's army-backed interim government, often criticised for failing to tackle food prices that have almost doubled over the past year, said it had decided to increase emergency food stocks to 3 million tonnes of rice and wheat in the 2008-09 financial year (July-June), up from 1.5 million tonnes stocks expected this fiscal year.
The retail price of 1 kg of rice has risen to 40 taka from 20/22 taka in early 2007, traders said.
Early this month, Bangladesh's Food and Disaster Management Ministry began a drive to buy 50,000 tonnes of wheat from farmers at 26 taka per kg.
Bangladesh produces about 30 million tonnes of rice and wheat annually to feed its 140 million people, and also imports rice and wheat to fill up its food stocks.
The country is facing a more critical situation this year following two spells of floods and a devastating cyclone in 2007, which destroyed 3 million tonnes of rice and wheat.Reuters
