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| Sunday, 27 February 2005 |
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Paddy purchasing yet to take off by Deepal Warnakulasuriya Much announced Maha season paddy crop purchasing scheme by the Agriculture Ministry and the Agricultural Marketing Ministry has not received expected results after two weeks of the launching. According to the Agriculture Ministry Media Spokesman they were to receive the district level progress reports of the process by last Wednesday. But, they had recieved neither report nor a single response from any Government Agent or a buying centre. However, the `Sunday Observer' learns that pledged funds from the Treasury had been released for almost all districts. But, according to some farmers' associations the Ministry was still struggling to fix the prices at which they were going to buy prepared rice from the cooperative societies and agrarian services centres. They also said that the project was started too early. Meanwhile, some Government Agents claimed that they had problems in supplying prepared rice to the Ministry at the price quoted. The special committee which had been appointed to supervise the process had also appointed 26 graduates providing communication and transport facilities to cover all the paddy harvesting districts. Though the Agriculture Minister promised to provide their contact numbers to the media, the Ministry's Media Unit had failed to provide necessary details to the media. According to the Ministry sources the purchasing scheme will be operated through 1305 centres islandwide till April 10 at a fixed price of Rs. 15.50 and 16.50 per 1. kg of Nadu and Samba paddy respectively. |
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