Govt. purchased largest yala harvest this year

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Year 2005 Yala season has witnessed the highest ever Yala harvest of 63,888 metric tons of paddy stocks being purchased by the State.

Of all paddy purchases done during the past six Yala seasons, the highest amount of paddy has been purchased by the Government during the 2005 Yala season, according to an Agriculture Ministry spokesman.

At present purchase of this year's Yala paddy is being done in a more successful manner due to the national paddy purchasing programme implemented to by the Agriculture Ministry to directly purchase the paddy from farmers at a guaranteed price, the spokesman added.

The Treasury and the Agriculture Ministry have already disbursed Rs.1280 million for the purchase of Yala paddy harvest in 18 major paddy producing districts. Using this Rs.1280 million,the Multi Purpose Co-operative Societies (MPCSs), Agrarian Service Centres and Farmer Societies have already purchased a total of 63,888 metric tons of paddy, he said.

At present the MPCSs have purchased 43,951 metric tons of paddy,the Agrarian Service Centres 17,021 metric tons and Farmer Societies 2,916 metric tons. "However there is a possibility of purchasing nearly 75,000 metric tons of paddy utilising this Rs.1280 million," he said.

Farmers can obtain Rs.16.50 for a Kilo of Samba and Rs.15.50 per Kilo of Nadu and other paddy varieties they produced," the spokesman said.

On the directive of Agriculture, Public Security, Law and Order Minister and Deputy Defence Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake, the national paddy purchasing programme is being successfully implemented in 18 districts including North and East under the supervision of Deputy Agriculture Minister Jagath Pushpakumara, he said.