PMB buys paddy from Vavuniya and Kilinochchi after 30 years

The Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) has extended its paddy purchasing to Vavuniya and Kilinochchi after 30 years, having purchased 1.1 million kilogrammes of paddy from Kilinochchi and four million Kilogrammes from the Vavuniya district in the second week of August, Paddy Marketing Board sources said. 'Cooperatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando has allocated Rs.6 billion for the Paddy Marketing Board to purchase the Yala harvest from paddy cultivating districts.

Paddy Marketing Board Chairman K.B. Jayasinghe said that the PMB has already purchased 70,000 metric tons from paddy farmers at a cost of Rs. 2 billion in the second week of August.

"We hope to buy 200,000 metric tons of paddy from the Yala harvest with the allocated funds", Jayasinghe said.

According to farmer organisations in the Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura districts the intervention of the PMB to purchase of paddy, has helped paddy cultivators to earn a reasonable price for their harvest.

While the private sector purchases Nadu at Rs. 21 and Samba at Rs. 26 per kilogramme the Government buys Nadu at Rs. 28 and Samba, Rs. 30 per kilogramme they said.

Anuradhapura Zonal Manager Bandula Kumara said 1,100,000 Kgs of paddy had been purchased from Kilinochchi and 4,000,000 Kgs from Vavuniya after 30 years.

According to Agriculture Ministry sources 468,857 hectares of paddy lands had been cultivated during the Yala season and 1,539,491 metric tons of paddy harvest are expected during the Yala harvest.The provision of the fertiliser subsidy has brought more lands under cultivation and the dawn of peace in the North East has contributed to a sharp increase in the paddy harvest in the country. "Over 90 percent of paddy farmers bring their paddy harvest to government paddy purchasing centres", K.M. Jayaratna a paddy farmer of Polonnaruwa, Kaduruwela said.

"We are grateful to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Minister Johnston Fernando for taking measure to help paddy farmers against blackmarketeers", Jayaratne said.

-RW