Agri. Dept. offers minimum purchase prices for paddy in Maha season

As per the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, the government has prepared an arrangement for purchasing paddy from farmers in the 2023/24 Maha season. Accordingly, it was decided to purchase paddy by providing loans to the three sectors of small and medium scale paddy mill owners, paddy storage owners and paddy collectors on a concessionary interest basis by public and private banks.

In the implementation of the paddy purchase program by these three sectors, the said departments will purchase paddy under the minimum purchase prices for paddy presented by the Department of Agriculture.

Thus, the Department of Agriculture has presented the minimum purchase prices for paddy for this paddy purchasing program which is being implemented under the full supervision of the Ministry of Finance.

The prices are as follows.

Standard paddy with moisture content 14%

Nadu   The price of one kg of paddy is          Rs. 105

Samba                                                                         Rs. 120

Keeri Samba                                                    Rs. 130

Wet paddy with moisture content more than 14%.

Nadu   The price of one kg of paddy is          Rs. 90

Samba                                                                         Rs. 100

Keeri Samba                                                    Rs. 120

To purchase this padyy, the government is going to provide a maximum loan amount of 50 million rupees for small and medium scale rice mill owners and a maximum loan amount of 25 million rupees for paddy storage owners and paddy collectors through public and private banks.

This loan scheme is to be implemented all over the island and under this only paddy harvests of the 2023/24 Maha season can be purchased.

Accordingly, the purchase of paddy should be done at the prices offered by the Department of Agriculture. Also, the supervision of this paddy purchase is implemented jointly with the Department of Agrarian Development and the District Secretaries and the Divisional Secretaries.

The Department of Agriculture took suggestions from all sectors including farmers’ organizations in determining the maximum prices. Accordingly, steps were taken by the Department of Agriculture to present these prices.

According to these prices, it has been possible to give the highest price for the 2023/24 Maha season paddy harvest.

Meanwhile, according to the instructions of the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, the Paddy Marketing Board has used a special arrangement to buy paddy this time, according to the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Janaka Dharmakeerthi.

Especially for consumer protection in cases of rising rice prices, as well as in cases of falling rice prices, the Rice Marketing Board increases the price of rice with the aim of keeping the price of rice stable for farmers. For this, a Cabinet paper is to be submitted for Cabinet approval. He also said that the Paddy Marketing Board has planned to get two billion rupees for the purchase of paddy.

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