Around 5.0 million extreme poor families across the country will get 30-kg rice per month under the food friendly programme at 10 per kg from September to November this year.
Md Arifur Rahman Apu, Director General (DG) of the Directorate General of Food, said the government has allocated 750,000 tonnes of rice for 2018-2019 fiscal year under the programme.
"Some 150,000 tonnes of rice will be distributed monthly,” he said, reports BSS.
In addition to this, the DG said, the government with the assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP) will distribute fortified rice among 1,21159 families of 10 upazilas in the country.
The upazilas are Kurigram Sadar and Phulbari, Keraniganj, Kaliganj, Moksudpur, Faridpur Sadar, Sarail, Bijoynagar, Ramganj and Bamna.
The fortified rice contains vitamin A, B1, B12, Folic Acid, Iron and zinc and each one kilogram rice to be mixed with 100 kilogram of normal rice for effective nutrition supply from the staple food consumption, said Parimal Chandra Sarker, Director (Supply, Distribution and Marketing) of the Food Department.
“The distribution of the fortified rice will fulfil the nutrition deficiency and protect the people from vitamin and iron deficiencies like anemia, scurvy and beriberi diseases,” said the official.
The food department official said, “The government has a plan to implement the programme across the country. But now we are piloting the program initially in 10 upazilas.”
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched the programme in 2016 by inaugurating rice distribution among the poor at Chilmari upazila under Kurigram district on September 7 in 2016.
Under the programme, a poor family will get 30-kg rice for five months in a year under the programme—March and April and from September to November in a year.
More than 10,000 dealers are being involved in the rice distribution programme.