PMB to purchase entire paddy stocks

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

"President Mahinda Rajapaksa has given directives to the Paddy Marketing Board(PMB) to purchase entire paddy stocks from farmers who are willing to sell their harvest to the board ",Co-operative and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando said.

"The government is prepared to purchase entire paddy harvest of farmers for the year and the Paddy Marketing Board has adequate storage facilities for this purpose",he added.

The government has constructed new storage facilities which can accommodate over 12,000 tons of paddy.

In addition to that the government has planned to construct storage facilities to store more than 60,000 tons of paddy in Anuradhapura district in line with the Deyata Kirula programme. The minister said that stores that can hold more than 20,000 tons of paddy have already constructed under this programme.

Accordingly there is enough space to purchase paddy from farmers. The Board has deployed a number of officers and lorries to purchase paddy and to transfer it to empty stores.

Because of that there is nothing to fear for farmers, the minister explained.