The government has decided to resume its food friendly programme for the poor across the country next week, Food Minister Qamrul Islam said today.

It will also cover the entire country under its open market sale (OMS) programme from March which is currently limited to divisional cities, the food minister said.

Last year, the food friendly programme for September to November was suspended due to short supply of rice triggered by floods in the country including in the haor areas.

This programme will be resumed in the coming months from March to April, the minister said.

The food friendly programme is operated in the two slots -- September - November and March - April -- of a year.

Under the food friendly programme the government sells 30 kilogrammes of rice at the price of Tk 10/kg to each family in a month and 50 lakh families across the country.

To continue the service, the government needs 1.5 lakh tonnes of rice each month, the minister said at a meeting with district-level food officials at the Directorate General of Food in Dhaka.