Another Rs 5 b to purchase Yala harvest

by Uditha KUMARASINGHE

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has approved the release of a further Rs. 5 billion to purchase the Yala paddy harvest from farmers under the Government's national paddy purchasing program.

Earlier Rs. 3 billion had been provided to purchase the Yala harvest. The Ministry through the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) has purchased nearly 80,000 metric tons of paddy by using the Rs.3 billion allocated earlier for the national paddy purchasing program, Co-operatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando told the Sunday Observer yesterday. The Ministry has targeted to purchase 250,000 metric tons of paddy during the Yala season. This would be the highest amount of paddy purchased by a Government. During the UNP regime, the maximum amount of paddy purchased by the PMB was only 55,000 metric tons. At the time the PMB had 386 paddy stores and over 100 lorries, the Minister said.

The Ministry has also decided to maintain a buffer stock from this Yala harvest which would be sufficient for nearly two-and-a-half months, he said.

At present the PMB purchases a kilogramme of quality paddy between Rs. 28 and Rs. 30. The government introduced this certified price to help farmers. If the PMB did not intervene to purchase paddy at this certified price, the price of a kilogramme of paddy would have dropped to Rs.10.

The PMB cannot purchase a kilogramme of paddy produced with over 14 percent moisture rate at Rs.28 or Rs.30. If we purchase a kilogramme of high moisture paddy at Rs.28, we will have to close the PMB after one harvesting season and our losses will increase to billions of rupees.

At present the Ministry can store the paddy purchased. During the UNP regime a large number of Government paddy stores had been sold and leased to their friends and relatives.

The PMB Head Office in Kandy had been given to a UNP supporter to run a hotel. Of the 386 paddy stores, only 140 remain at present. The UNP which ruined the PMB has no right to speak about paddy farmers, he said.

According to the Minister the 140 paddy stores can store only three percent of the paddy harvest. Therefore, President Rajapaksa has directed to convert the Food Department stores into paddy stores. In addition, the Indian Government has pledged to provide technical expertise to set up temporary paddy stores in major paddy purchasing areas.

From the next Maha season, the Ministry through the PMB will introduce a program to assist farmers to harvest and produce quality paddy. The Ministry will explore the possibility of providing three or four rupees more for a kilogramme of paddy produced by farmers.

"Today farmers don't want to park their lorries and wait opposite the PMB stores without selling their paddy. Of the total PMB stores, only 50 percent of them have been used to store paddy so far," he said.

The Minister who categorically denied the allegations by the Opposition on the Government's paddy purchasing mechanism said that the paddy purchasing program is being successfully implemented throughout the country. However, some farmers were unable to sell a kilogramme of paddy at Rs.28 as they have not produced quality paddy.

The President's vision is to encourage farmers and provide them all facilities such as the fertiliser subsidy, the Minister said.