By Franklin R.Satyapalan
Contrary to certain negative news reports, most of the Paddy farmers in the country whose paddy contained less than 14 % moisture content were paid the government’s guaranteed price of Rupees 28 per kilo of Nadu and Rupees 30 per kilo of samba. All other farmers with stocks of paddy in hand could rest assured that if they dried their paddy out in the sun for one day after harvesting by a combined harvester they would be paid the guaranteed price, said Chairman of the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) K.B.Jayasinghe
He said "The Treasury had set aside Rupees 3 billion initially to purchase paddy and we have targeted to purchase 160,000 metric tons and has already purchased 1800 metric tons of paddy".
He said that the farmers did not face major problems in the past when they harvested paddy by manually. The paddy was left to dry in the sun before it is bagged in sacks. But today with the introduction of the combined harvester machine there a larger water content in the paddy as the machine packs the paddy immediately in gummy bags following harvesting giving no room for drying. The paddy rots quickly with such water content, he said.
We are moving out the old stocks of Paddy purchased during the last Yala season from farmers in the Amparai district. "we have sent out a few lorries to go into the villages and purchase stocks of paddy until such time we clear stocks in hand.
Paddy is currently being purchased from farmers in the districts of Anuradhapura, Pollonnaruwa, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Amparai, Kurunegala, Vavuniya, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Hambantota, andcRatnapura .
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=47097
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