An ambitious plan to purchase 140,000 tonnes of rice is already in trouble with a majority of farmers declining to sell the quality product at the prices fixed by the government.
The government has priced a kilo of samba at Rs. 30 and Nadu at Rs. 28. Responding to our inquiries, public and private sector officials said that farmers were reluctant to sell paddy at those prices.
The government is competing with several major private sector traders including Siripala Gamlath, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Services and Dudley, brother of Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services Minister Maithripala Sirisena, to acquire paddy stocks. Gamlath, who is the brother-in-law of Sirisena, is the proprietor of Nipuna while Dudley runs Araliya two of the largest selling brands.
A senior official with Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services Ministry yesterday told The Island that on a presidential directive Rs. 10 million each had been allocated to Government Agents of 16 districts to acquire paddy stocks. According to the official funds had been allocated to GAs of Ampara, Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Puttalam, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa, Matale, Badulla, Moneragala, Kandy, Vavuniya, Hambantota, Ratnapura and Mullaitivu. She expressed confidence that they could meet the target.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa recently directed relevant ministries to purchase 140,000 tonnes of paddy to thwart unscrupulous elements from exploiting the lucrative rice market at the expense of both the administration and the consumer.
Ariyasiri Vithanage, Chairman of TradLanka Agricultural Enterprises (Pvt) Limited accused farmers of exploiting the market. `They are seeking unreasonable profits at the expense of the entire industry,` Vithanage told The Island, emphasising the urgent need on the part of the government to reach a compromise with the farming community.
He asserted that farmers should be able to sell their product at the fixed prices as the government, despite severe difficulties had provided them with heavily subsidised fertiliser. He urged the government to thwart the use of paddy as animal feed. `Bring in the necessary legislature immediately to stop this despicable practice,` he said, warning failure on the part of the government would be catastrophic.
Praising President Rajapaksa for his unreserved support for the agricultural sector, he said had Sri Lanka succumbed to a World Bank proposal during Ranil Wickremesinghe tenure as the Premier, the agricultural sector would have collapsed. The WB wanted an end to state patronage to agriculture and focus on industries, he said.
He explained the difficulty in selling samba and nadu at Rs. 70 and Rs. 65, respectively, unless farmers agreed to sell their paddy at the fixed prices. Unfortunately, they seemed to be determined not to sell at the fixed prices, he said, expressing the belief the government was aware of the ground reality.
Addressing a public gathering at Aralaganwila in Mahaweli System B , Minister Maithripala Sirisena last July vowed to compete with the private sector to purchase paddy. He said that the Paddy Marketing Board was ready to purchase paddy at the current market prices.
Vajira Priyankara of CIC Agri Business said that the actual market prices were very much higher than the fixed prices. A kilo of quality samba would be between Rs.35 to Rs 38, he said, expressing concern that price control could cause rapid deterioration of the quality. It would be extremely difficult to maintain quality unless market forces were allowed to decide paddy prices. Responding to our queries, he asserted that a quality product couldn t be made available at current fixed prices.
Meanwhile, Siripala Gamlath, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Services who said he was not directly involved in operations of Nipuna transactions, expressed confidence in implementing the President s directive. A group of PMB officials yesterday visited Ampara to discuss the scheme, he said, adding that he was not directly involved in operations of Nipuna. `They ll carry on operations but my primary task is to serve the government.`
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