President Gotabaya Rajapaksa today instructed the Bank of Ceylon and the People’s Bank to provide credit facilities to the Paddy Marketing Board in order to purchase paddy, keeping sufficient paddy stocks as surety.
The President’s Media Division (PMD) said the President also stated that the programme should be implemented with the aim of purchasing paddy competitively and maintaining an adequate paddy buffer stock in the possession of the government.
The President made these remarks while making an inspection visit to the Paddy Marketing Board Head Office located in Colombo 02, today (04).
The purpose of the President’s sudden visit was to explore possible steps that could be taken to purchase, store, sell and maintain the market demand for paddy without any shortage during the Maha Season.
The vision of the Paddy Marketing Board is “To Become the Pioneer Parastatal in the Country for Purchasing, Storing, Processing & Marketing of Paddy and Rice.” The primary function of the Paddy Marketing Board is to provide a fair price to the paddy farmer without intermediaries and to issue stocks of paddy when there is a shortage of rice in the market.
The officials pointed out that the institution had incurred a huge loss due to the fact that not a single grain of rice had been purchased under the previous government in 2017 and 2019 and the stocks of paddy that could be consumed were treated as animal feed and given to a few private sector entrepreneurs at a very low price.
The relationship between the farmer and the Paddy Marketing Board was severed due to the lack of a fair price for paddy, commissions to intermediaries, the conditions imposed on the purchase of paddy, and the improper maintenance of stocks.
The present government took measures to increase the control price of paddy to a minimum of Rs. 55 during the 2020 Maha Season from the previous Rs. 35 which prevailed for five years prior to 2020. Duminda Priyadarshana, Vice Chairman of the Paddy Marketing Board, said that the price of a kilo of paddy has increased to Rs. 95 by the Maha Season 2022 and therefore, a large stock of paddy has been purchased and stored.
The Paddy Marketing Board has the capacity to maintain a reserve of 315,000 metric tons.
The President instructed to take necessary steps to increase it to 400,000.
During the past two years, 315 warehouses were repaired with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Army. The remaining 35 warehouses also need to be renovated immediately, the President said.
It was decided to immediately assign 40 graduates as Assistant Regional Managers to expedite the purchase of paddy and 200 Multipurpose Officers for storage activities.
The President pointed out the need to take steps to build an elephant fence to protect paddy storage.
The Paddy Marketing Board will be developed as a profit-making institution and the President instructed the officials not to allow any irregularities to take place.
Minister of Agriculture Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Principal Advisor to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the Ministry, and Government Officials were also present. (NewsWire)