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| Thursday, 2 December 2004 |
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Politics | |
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| 50,000 metric tons of paddy as buffer stocks during Maha season - Agriculture Minister by Uditha Kumarasinghe The Government through the Agriculture Ministry has made arrangements to store 50,000 metric tons of paddy as buffer stocks and purchase paddy from farmers at concessionary rates during the forthcoming Maha season, Agriculture, Livestock and Lands Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake said. The Government will release the 50,000 metric tons of paddy in stock to the market systematically with a view to counterbalance the rice prices in the market. Therefore, after the Maha season, the Ministry intends to be in a good position in controlling the rice prices in the local market, he said. The Minister made this comments addressing rice mill owners at the Annual General Meeting of the All Island Small and Medium Scale Rice mill owners held at the Ministry recently. He said the country is in for a bumper Maha season with nearly 2,188,430 metric tons of paddy expected to be reaped during the 2004-2005 Maha season. A large number of fallow paddy lands have been cultivated during this Maha season due to various initiatives taken by the UPFA Government to develop paddy cultivation and encourage the farmers towards cultivation , he said. The Minister said his Ministry has taken steps to register all rice mill owners under the Ministry's purview. In future, the Government will only provide loans and other facilities to the rice mill owners who had registered with the Ministry. The Minister said amidst various difficulties, steps were taken by the Government to provide the fertiliser subsidy to the farmers. In addition, the Government also removed taxes imposed on agriculture implements. This has encouraged a large number of farmers who left the agriculture sector to return to their cultivation activities. The Ministry has already formulated a systematic plan to purchase the harvest of the farmers. As one of the steps,the Ministry has taken measures to overcome the problems faced by small and medium scale rice mill owners and provide them with the required facilities needed to develop their business ventures, he said. Dissanayake said immediate measures should be taken to break the monopoly created in the purchase of paddy and the sale of rice. Therefore, rice mill owners have a key responsibility to make this attempt a success", he said. |
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