Rice import fallout

THE government has finally decided to impose a 10 percent duty on foreign rice to curb import of the grain. Needless to say this measure comes too late for the farmers and millers of the country. The high yields of Boro, Aus and Aman have become burdensome rather than a boon for the growers in the wake of massive import of rice. It has led to the plummeting of the market price of local varieties; many farmers have had to sell their crops at almost half the production cost, incurring huge losses.

The imposition of an import duty, after almost half the Boro output had already been harvested and most of it sold at a pittance, shows a lack of foresight from the government side in terms of making sure the farmers get fair prices for their crops.

With the prices of duty-free imported rice earlier on, being lower than those of local grains, markets have been flooded with low quality, cheap, foreign rice. Officials have justified this befuddling import spree, saying the low quality rice was meant for cattle. This is hardly credible in the face of the market reality of abnormally low prices of local rice varieties.

Millers and farmers have been urging the government to restrict rice imports but to no avail until now. For a government widely known for being agriculture friendly it is hard to fathom why such a policy of importing rice would have been adopted when there are bumper crops of the local varieties.

We hope the government will, through the new import duties and other measures, protect our farmers' interest.