12,000 MT of rice for WFP Food Security programme

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Agriculture Ministry has prepared a stock of 12,000 metric tons of rice of the standard quality to be supplied to the World Food Programme (WFP) under the agreement signed between the Ministry and WFP to purchase 18,000 metric tons of rice from Sri Lankan farmers towards WFP's Food Security initiative, Agriculture Ministry Secretary Tissa Warnasuriya said.

"This is the highest amount of rice stock purchased by an international organisation from local farmers. According to this agreement signed, the WFP has pledged to invest US$ 5.19 million towards this rice purchasing exercise."

This 18,000 metric tons of rice stock to be purchased by the WFP will consist of Sudu Kekulu, Sudu Nadu and Rathu Nadu rice varieties, he said.

In addition to this rice stock, the WFP has pledged to purchase another 8,000 metric tons of rice from Sri Lankan farmers, he said.

The agreement relating to this rice purchasing programme was signed between WFP Country Director Geff Taft Dick and Agriculture Ministry Secretary Warnasuriya recently.

A senior Ministry official said the Japanese and Australian Governments have pledged to provide financial allocations to the WFP towards this rice purchasing programme. Through the Japanese grants, the WFP intends to purchase 13,000 metric tons of rice and another 5,000 metric tons of rice through Australian grants, he said.

"This entire rice stock purchased by the WFP will be used for food security in Sri Lanka. This rice stock will be mainly distributed among the people in tsunami affected areas free of charge. Therefore, this rice purchasing exercise will help keep paddy and rice prices at a stable level while employment opportunities will be created for Sri Lankans to transport and distribute rice," he said.

The WFP has made arrangements to purchase this rice stock from farmers in Puttalam, Kurunegala, Badulla, Moneragala, Kandy, Polonnaruwa, Ratnapura, Ampara, Anuradhapura, Matale, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts.

The WFP through this move intends to provide a helping hand to farmers to uplift their living conditions, he said.

The background for signing this agreement was mainly laid by the National Paddy Purchasing Programme implemented by the Government during the previous Maha season. Under this national paddy purchasing exercise, the Government could purchase 200,000 metric tons of paddy and maintain 20,000 metric tons of paddy as a buffer stock.

Meanwhile Warnasuriya in a media briefing on Monday said this year's Yala season, a bumper harvest of 1.3 million metric tons of paddy is expected. In addition, the previous Maha season had recorded two million metric tons of bumper paddy harvest.

"Therefore if there is a possibility of reaching the target of three million metric tons of paddy harvest, the country will be self sufficient in rice," he said.

Due to various initiatives taken by the Government to develop paddy cultivation, the 3.8 metric tons of paddy harvest obtained per hectare has been increased up to 4.1 metric tons, he said.