Bumper paddy harvest to exceed 2.1million MT

Uditha KUMARASINGHE

COLOMBO: Farmers islandwide are expecting a bumper Maha harvest exceeding 2.1 million metric tons of paddy.

The main reason for the record yield is attributed to the move by the UPFA Government to provide a 50 Kg bag of Urea fertiliser to farmers at Rs.350 as pledged under Mahinda Chintana, Agriculture, Irrigation and Mahaweli Development Minister Maithripala Sirisena told the Daily News yesterday.

The Minister said the target was to obtain nearly 1.9 million Metric tons of paddy from this year's Maha season. However, there is a possibility of reaching the target of 2.1 million Metric tons of paddy harvest due to the action taken by the Government to provide a 50 Kg bag of Urea fertiliser at Rs.350.

Compared with the 2.01 million Metric tons paddy harvest of previous 2004-2005 Maha season, this year's harvest has seen a record increase. The Government has made arrangements to purchase 10 per cent of 2.1 million Metric ton yield, he said.

The Government has already allocated Rs. 2,000 million to purchase this year's Maha paddy harvest. Following a request to District Secretaries, the Treasury has already disbursed money to purchase the Maha paddy harvest in several districts such as Ampara, Kurunegala and Kilinochchi. More funds will be allocated to purchase paddy following the requests made by the District Secretaries.

On the directive of President Mahinda Rajapakse, the Agriculture Ministry together with Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry has already implemented a national paddy purchasing programme to purchase the Maha paddy harvest.

According to this programme, a kilo of Samba is purchased at Rs.17.50 and a kilo of Nadu paddy Rs.16.50, he said.

The Government has established a special institution 'Sri Lanka Agricultural Products Marketing Authority' to systematically conduct paddy purchasing.

All resources belonging to the Paddy Marketing Board and the Food Department have been vested in this institution through a Cabinet decision, the Minister said.

A special Task Force has been set up under the chairmanship of Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry Secretary Dr. R.M.K. Ratnayake to oversee paddy purchasing. The Task Force will meet next Wednesday to review the progress of the paddy purchasing programme.

The Minister said the Government has 81,400 Metric tons of paddy in Government stores purchased during the previous 2004-2005 Maha season.

In addition, 5,500 Metric tons of rice are in stores and the Food Commissioner's Department has also 13,000 Metric tons of rice stock.

Arrangements have been made to transport the paddy stocks stored in various Government stores throughout the country.

These paddy stocks will be stored at the CWC store complex in Colombo and the Food Department's store in Veyangoda. Both stores have the capacity of store 200,000 Metric tons of paddy including 100,000 Metric tons each, the Minister said.