Minister to inform Cabinet on food reserves

Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera will present a note to the Cabinet emphasizing the purchase of paddy to the Paddy Marketing Board and the maintenance of food reserves for food security.

Due to the non-purchase of paddy under the Paddy Marketing Board from the last Maha Season’s paddy harvest, the Paddy Marketing Board does not have a large reserve of paddy at present.

The Government spent 13 billion rupees from the paddy harvest of the last Maha Season and bought paddy through District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries, which were converted into rice by small rice mill owners and distributed to 29 lakh low-income families free of charge.

But now the country has to face a severe drought and not only our country but many countries are accumulating food reserves in anticipation of a severe food shortage.

Especially due to the El Nino phenomenon which has caused this drought, India has completely banned the export of rice because it has to deal with the current flood situation in India as well as a drought weather situation in the future.

But the Government does not have any food reserves to deal with future food shortages in our country. The Paddy Marketing Board has only 21, 50,672 metric tons of paddy purchased in this Yala Season.

Nearly 50,000 acres of paddy cultivation has been destroyed this year. That amount is increasing daily. Also, according to the current weather forecasts, in El Nino and La Nina weather conditions; there will be heavy rainfall in October and November months, as well as a rainless weather condition again in the 2024 Yala Season. Therefore, it appears that this year’s Maha Season as well as the upcoming Yala Season will have to face unexpected situations.

Therefore, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera advised the PMB to inform the Cabinet about maintaining food reserves necessary for food security in our country and to prepare a Note to the Cabinet for taking further steps.

It is also emphasized here that the District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries should continue to store some of the stocks of paddy purchased in the last Maha Season and keep them in storage as well as take steps to continue the purchase of rice by the Rice Marketing Board in order to maintain a food security reserve with the Government.

Currently, the Government does not have rice and paddy stocks, as most of the rice and paddy stocks are owned by the private sector, so it is necessary for the Government to have rice stocks to control the rise in rice prices in the future. If not, the consumers will have to face a lot of inconvenience due to the increase in the price of rice.

The Minister further advised that the Cabinet note should be prepared covering all these matters.

The post Minister to inform Cabinet on food reserves appeared first on DailyNews.