By Lal Gunesekera
Paddy farmers country wide are up in arms against the current guaranteed price. As production costs have spiralled, they want the government to increase the guaranteed price, which is Rs. 28 for Nadu and Rs. 30 for Samba.
They complain that the storage facilities in several Paddy Marketing Board warehouses are insufficient and they have to face hardships as the PMB refuses to purchase their paddy claiming that it contains a lot of moisture.
PMB Chairman K. B. Jayasinghe told The Island that of the 375 warehouses they had, only 181 were in operation, while the rest had been either sold to private establishments, during previous regimes, or damaged/destroyed during the 30-year-old terrorist conflict. He said that the government was in the process of renovating the damaged warehouses and constructing more.
He said that he was in Polonnaruwa yesterday (26) and was scheduled to visit Ampara today (27).
He said 10,000 MT of paddy had been purchased in the current Maha season from Ampara and due to over production the excess paddy had been transported to warehouses in Veyangoda and Kurunegala.
Jayasinghe said that due to the moisture content in the paddy they (PMB) had requested farmers to dry it to accepted levels and the PMB would then purchase their produce.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Cooperatives and Internal Trade said that they had recently opened a warehouse at Oyamaduwa in Anuradhapura which could store 60,000 MT of paddy. The excess paddy was also transported to warehouses in Veyangoda and Walpita to be stored after purchase. He said that the government had a buffer stock of 150,000 MT of paddy.
A three-member committee comprising W. Sakalasuriya (Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture), Sunil Sirisena (Secretary to the Ministry of Cooperatives and Internal Trade) and Udeni Wickremasinghe (Secretary to the Ministry of Agrarian Services) has been appointed to look into revising the guaranteed price for paddy and submit a report to Treasury Secretary P. B. Jayasundera urgently.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=48395
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