News
Paddy purchases likely to begin next month
View(s):By Senuka Jayakody
The Paddy Marketing Board is expecting cabinet approval for at least Rs. 10 billion to buy 10% of the Maha harvest.
The Cabinet paper is pending. The PMB had only managed to buy 7,100 metric tonnes of the Yala harvest because there were no funds at the time.
A. Pradeepan
The Maha paddy would be bought in three stages. In the first stage, Rs. 10 billion will be needed to buy 100,000 MT. Purchases will likely start in February.
Duminda Priyadarshana, the deputy coordination officer of the PMB and a senior researcher of the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute told the Sunday Times: “The PMB needs the money to buy paddy to ensure price stability.’’
Meanwhile, the purchase price is to be decided next week by a committee. This will be when the harvest will be gathered in the Northern and the Eastern areas, after Thaipongal. The price will depend on the reduction in the prices of fertiliser and fuel, as well as the farmer and the consumer.
President,National Agrarian Unity, Anuradha Tennakoon.Pic by Priyanka Samaraweera
Around 700,000 hectares have been cultivated, while the PMB is targeting 800,000 hectares and a harvest of over 3 million MT, which would be “sufficient for the year, without imports”.
The World Bank and USAID have funded and shipped the entire requirement of urea and other fertilisers to help ease food insecurity.
Mr. Priyadarshana said rice imports were not needed because the Maha harvest would be sufficient. He expects a successful Yala season as well.
He also expects the price of sudu kekulu to fall to around Rs. 150 by February 15 and other varieties to fall below Rs. 200. Meanwhile, the price of imported rice is expected to drop further since, “there is less demand because of people’s preference for local rice”.
Large-scale millers will once again manipulate the paddy market, while at least 10 small-scale mills are being auctioned every month, said Mudith Perera, the president of the United Rice Producers Association.
Small-scale millers had borrowed at high interest rates to maintain their operations last year, and Indian rice imports meant they were unable to repay loans.
Mr. Perera expects a drop in price following the Maha harvest and also because of imports. “2022 and 2023 are the graveyard years for the small millers.’’
The president of the National Agrarian Unity, Anuradha Tennakoon, said despite the ban on rice imports, farmers sell paddy at between Rs. 100 and Rs. 105, compared with the Rs 120 purchase price of the PMB.
He accuses the Government of being able to import rice worth Rs. 72 billion, while being unable to spend Rs 2 billion to buy local paddy.
Around 700,000 hectares have been cultivated, while the PMB is targeting 800,000 hectares and a harvest of over 3 million MT.
“There is no system to manage the resources such as land and foreign aid to produce a bigger harvest.’’
Mr. Tennakoon said he had visited the Agriculture Ministry to present some proposals, but that it was only discussed once. “Now, nobody wants to discuss it, since they work according to a political agenda. They just want votes and to keep the farmer as a political slave.’’
Meanwhile, grocery owner A. Pratheepan, who only sells local rice, says the prices have not risen although it has been a month since rice imports has been suspended.
“I do not expect the prices to rise. They may fall, but would not rise,” he said.
(See video on timesonline.lk)
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