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Rs. 10m. to buy A'pura paddy

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Government has reserved Rs.10 million to purchase the paddy harvest of farmers in the Anuradhapura district.

This money has been granted to the Co-operative Rural Banks to provide credit facilities to the co-operative societies to purchase paddy from the farmers, a spokesman to the Ministry of Samurdhi, Agriculture and Livestock told the Daily News yesterday.

Deputy Minister Muttu Sivalingam met the District Assistant Agrarian Services Commissioner and Livestock Development Officials at the Anuradhapura Divisional Secretariat office on March 25 to look into the problems faced by the paddy farmers in the district.

"At present the Co-operatives and the CWE are engaged in paddy purchasing. Therefore the Ministry has instructed the officials to educate the farmers not to sell their paddy to the private sector at low rates," he said.

At the discussion conducted by the Minister with officials, they pointed out that at present the farmer organisations have not implemented a program to purchase the paddy harvest of the farmers. Farmers have complained that the Rajaganaya farmer Organisation is being turned into an inactive entity.

Obtaining loans from the private traders by pledging the harvest has become the main reason for the private sector monopoly in the market. In order to control this situation, the Ministry has taken steps to upgrade the Govijana Bank system operating in Anuradhapura and other key paddy cultivation districts, he said.

Nearly Rs. 12,000 have to be spent to cultivate one acre of paddy land. But the Govijana Banks grant only Rs. 5000 loan for one acre. This amount is not sufficient and the Ministry officials have requested the Deputy Minister at the discussion to increase this loan up to Rs. 7000 or Rs. 8000.

Meanwhile the Ministry officials have pointed out that if the Govijana Kendra will intervene to purchase paddy, higher prices can be offered to the farmers rather than to the private sector to keep the paddy price stable.

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