Farmers not selling paddy to PMB anticipating price hike

Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has stated that even though the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) has opened paddy warehouses for the purchase of paddy, a situation has arisen where farmers are not selling paddy to the Board.

The Minister said this at the Agriculture Advisory Committee meeting on Wednesday (9) at the Committee Room No. 01 of the Parliament complex.

The Cabinet approved the provision of Rs. 500 million from the Farmer Trust Fund at eight percent interest for the purchase of paddy. Under that, PMB started purchasing paddy. According to the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers, the PMB should sell and pay the amount obtained under the loan basis and the Board should show profit.

The PMB has to pay another Rs. 24,000 million as per the loan amount taken from the State banks for the past several years.

In addition, the Cabinet has also approved the obtaining of another Rs. 750 million loan from a State bank for the purchase of paddy.

Accordingly, 39 warehouses in 10 districts have been opened to purchase paddy, but the farmers have refused to supply rice to the PMB, as the price may rise due to the current drought, the Minister said.

The Minister also stated that because of this, six warehouses opened for the purchase of paddy in the Hambantota district have been closed due to non-receipt of paddy.

The Minister also said that since some sectors have declared that the drought condition will continue until the next Yala season, the farmers have now stored paddy in order to sell their paddy at a higher price and they are hoping that they will be able to sell a kilogram of paddy at a price of more than Rs. 95.

However, the Minister said that the Government does not have an additional reserve of rice to be used in case of an emergency food crisis in the country. From the beginning, the Government has had a paddy reserve if the PMB bought and sold paddy, but at present there is no such paddy reserve. Also, the Agriculture Minister has submitted nine Cabinet Papers to the Cabinet requesting money to buy paddy.

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