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GFMM desk: Farmers in the district of Jessore remain in the dark about the government's decision to purchase paddy-rice during this Aman season through an online app.
Helaluddin, a farmer the Sadar upazila's Deara union, said he was cultivating Aman paddy on 2.5 bigha of land this year; he will keep some of the paddy and sell the rest. However, no one told him about the online procurement process, he informed.
Ashraf Hossain, another farmer of Arabpur union, was equally unaware about the process, but welcomed the government's initiative.
Md Golam Mostafa, assistant agriculture officer at the district's Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) office, said they themselves received the government notification only a week ago. They will carry out a promotional campaign regarding the online procurement process soon, he added.
Arifuzzaman, an entrepreneur at Arabpur union digital center, said a letter in this regard was sent by Access to Information (A2i) on Sunday. They do plan to help farmers interested to sell their rice using the digital center, he mentioned.
Liaquat Ali, acting food officer in Jessore, said farmers have until December 7 to register themselves, in order to be eligible under the digital app.
A lottery will be held on December 15 to select the final list of farmers, he added.
Sources at the district's DAE office said Jessore Sadar is part of the 16 districts where the government will purchase rise directly from farmers via an app named "Krishoker App."
Close to 2,826 tons of rice is expected to be collected from the district through this app, sources at the Jessore Directorate General of Food said, while 15,230 tons will be purchased from Jessore through conventional procurement methods.
The DAE office also said the annual rice production target in the district was set to 5.83 lakh tons, out of which Sadar upazila will produce 90,000 tons.
The app has been developed for the farmers so that they could sell their produced paddy directly to the government.
After downloading the app, it can be used easily on a smartphone. Farmers have to register through the app by providing their national ID number and phone number. Those farmers who do not own mobile phones can go to the upazila digital center and use the app there.
Amon paddy will be collected through the app from the farmers of Savar, Gazipur Sadar, Mymensingh Sadar, Jamalpur Sadar, Brahmanbaria Sadar, Comilla Sadar south, Barisal Sadar, Bhola Sadar, Naogaon Sadar, Bogra Sadar, Rangpur Sadar, Dinajpur Sadar, Jhenaidah Sadar, Jessore Sadar, Habiganj Sadar and Moulvibazar Sadar Upazila.
It is to be noted that in the current Amon season, the government will buy 6 lakh tons of paddy at the rate of Tk. 26/kg from the domestic market. Besides, the government will collect 3 lakh tons of boiled rice at the rate of Tk. 36/kg and 50 thousand tons of non-boiled rice at the rate of Tk. 35/kg. The collection operation has been started since November 20. It will run until February 28, 2020.
According to sources, the farmers complain of irregularities and corruption in collecting paddy of the government from the domestic market every year. The farmers for whom this collection campaign was deprived of its benefit. To overcome this problem, the initiative is taken to purchase paddy & rice directly from the farmers through an online app.
Source: Online/SZK
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