The Cabinet of Ministers has decided to pay a minimum of Rs. 50,000 per hectare as an incentive to paddy farmers who suffered crop damages during the 2021 Maha Season.

This was announced by Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage today (March 01).

Previously, the Cabinet of Ministers had granted approval to prepare an appropriate scheme of compensation in consultation with the General Treasury to pay a compensation of Rs. 25 per one kilogram of paddy in order to secure the income level of farmers who were affected by the declining paddy harvest during Maha Season.

Accordingly, a methodology was prepared to pay the compensation that is calculated based on the relevant criteria as an evaluation incentive limited to an extent of the agricultural area of 05 acres to the maximum so that small-scale farmers, as well as small and medium level farmers, would be able to obtain the relevant incentive allowance.

The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture for implementing the said methodology and for remitting the required funds to the Department of Agrarian Development by the State Minister of Organic Fertilizer Production, Supply and Regulation and the Paddy and Grains, Organic Food, Vegetables, Fruits, Chillies, Onion and Potato Cultivation Promotion, Seed Production and Advanced Technology for Agriculture.

Speaking on the matter, Minister Aluthgamage said, “Farmers who cultivated 800,000 hectares of land in the 2021 Maha Season had to use organic fertilizer. However, as the ministry, we were not able to purchase organic fertilizer in time.  This resulted in low yield. Back then we assured farmers that we would not let anything unfair happen to them and we would make up for it. Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers yesterday decided to compensate the farmers for crop damages. We reached a decision to pay Rs. 50,000 per hectare as an incentive starting from next week to 1.1 million farmers who cultivated 800,000 hectares of land during the last Maha Season.”