Govt to increase quantity of paddy purchased from farmers

The government has decided to increase the quantity of paddy purchased from each farmer from 2,000kg to 3,000kg with immediate effect, Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera said.

Accordingly, the quantity of paddy purchased by Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) from a single farmer has been increased by 1,000 kg.

The Minister announced this decision during an inspection tour of the Ambalantota paddy storage complex attached to the PMB this morning (31).

Purchasing the paddy cultivated in Yala season is currently in progress by the PMB and 1kg of Samba Rice and Nadu Rice are being purchased for a guaranteed price each valued at Rs 41 and Rs 38, respectively.

Meanwhile, the circular pertaining to providing fertilizer subsidies to farmers engaged in organic farming had been released yesterday (30), the Agriculture Ministry said.

This initiative has been taken to promote the use of organic fertilizer among farmers, and according to the relevant circular, these financial allocations are slated to be rendered to the farmers using organic fertilizer, from the Yala cultivation season of 2018.