Northern farmers boost cultivation:

Record paddy buffer stock - Trade Minister

Bankrupt UNP stages crop burning:

Sandasen MARASINGHE

Co-operative and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando yesterday stated that the country has a buffer stock of 800,000 MT of paddy today due to the farmers cultivating paddy fields in the North and East that were abandoned for decades due to terrorism.

The fertilizer subsidy provided to them by the Government too had been a reason for the bumper harvests.

Making this observation at a press conference held at the Ministry auditorium the Minister stated that the country is self-sufficient in paddy and sufficient buffer stocks will be maintained for two months, so that consumers will not feel any artificial shortages created in the market. The Minister stressed that the Government has not stopped the purchase of paddy harvests from the farmers and a kilogram of Nadu and Samba is given at a certified price of Rs 28 and Rs 30 respectively.

The farmers just have to bring the yield to one of the 136 store houses of the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) situated in all the districts of the country.

He also said that the Government has made arrangements for storage facilities for the yala season paddy harvest.

The Government has decided to use the store houses of the Food Department to store the paddy harvest and also to use the paddy store houses of the private owners as most of them are empty by now.

With reference to a news item that said a paddy farmer burnt some of his paddy harvests in the Ampara district, the Minister stated that this was a concoction by a UNP politician which is short of slogans today.

The Minister further alleged that the farmer had been hired to burn paddy. “He had been given money, liquor and paddy to burn them,” he said. “The Police have arrested the person and investigations are in progress.” He said that the UNP has now resumed to play with the lives of the people to come to power. The PMB has bought a stock of 28,000 mt of paddy only from the Ampara district.

He said most of the farmers are not coming to the stores of the PMB due to lack of knowledge and also their yields are not upto standard. Their paddy harvest contain moisture of more than 14 percent.

It only takes one day to dry the paddy to the standard level. But they now use a machine called Combine Harvest (boothaya) for harvesting. The harvest is loaded into the bags within the paddy field. But the paddy cannot be stored even for two days due to its moisture content.

The Minister further stated that for this reason the farmer sell them to the businessmen at a low price.“ But the reality is that they have to spend only a few cents to dry a kilogram of paddy.” The other matter is they do not bring the harvest to the stores of the Paddy Marketing Board. He stated that there were enough transport facilities in the villages and the farmers can earn Rs 9000 more by selling them to the Paddy Marketing Board although they spend Rs 1000 for transport, to sell them to the businessmen.

Minister further stated that under the guidance of the Mahinda Chintanaya steps have been taken to reopen rice mills in Pathegama, Kotagoda and Hingurakgoda that were closed during the periods of Ravi Karunanayake. Then the Government can control the price of rice in the market. Steps have been taken to reopen the mill at Vishwamadu in Kilinochchi which can produce 75,000 kgs a day. Nearly 50 percent of the factory items have been taken away by the LTTE.

Co-operative and Internal Trade Deputy Minister Neomal Perera, Ministry Secretary Anura Siriwardene, Paddy Cultivation Board Chairman K.B. Jayasinghe and Consumer Affairs Authority Chairman Rumy Marsoof also participated at the occasion.