Rice prices expected to soar

By Saliya Kumara Gunasekara, LakbimaNews

(15 July 2010) Rice cultivators are facing a dilemma as the government has not implemented a proper plan to purchase surplus paddy after the Yala harvest. As a result a farmer was forced to burn his produce last week. Meanwhile, in another incident there was an attempt by a farmer in the Ampara district to set a sack of paddy on fire while simultaneously setting himself on fire.

The government is accusing the UNP of motivating the farmer to self immolate. “ We investigated the Ampara issue and found that a powerful figure in the UNP was behind it. The UNP is playing games with the lives of the people. They are pursuing power. We haven’t stopped purchasing rice, though our stores are full. If the stores in the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) and the food department won’t do, we will take steps to get a few stores from the private sector,” Minister of Co-operatives and Internal Trade, Johnston Fernando said.

Beyond expectations

Meanwhile, even though the estimated rice production was between 1.36 to 1.40 million metric tonnes this year, it went beyond expectations as paddy production in the Northern and Eastern provinces was extremely good. But the authorities do not have a plan to purchase paddy in the event of a large supply, as rice prices are expected to soar.

Although the PMB has not yet begun to purchase paddy, Minister Johnston Fernando says that 1995 million kilograms of rice has already been purchased by the Board and that “80 percent of the stocks have already been stored. “However, it has been found that due to insufficient storing capacity at the PMB, even 5% of the total paddy production of the Yala season has not been stored.’’

Meanwhile, the PMB says that Nadu and Samba rice will be bought at the floor price of 28 and 30 rupees respectively. At present private rice merchants pay 20 rupees per kilogram. This racket is carried on in the Polonnaruwa district. As far as the farmer is concerned, he has to bring the produce to the PMB in order to sell it. Since transport costs are high and there are no PMBs in villages, farmers make no profit by selling the produce to the government. However, private merchants go to the farmer to purchase the harvest and in the end farmers sell their produce to the private trader. Farmers charge that the government has failed to create a proper mechanism to carry out this task.

Responding to the PMB’s inability to purchase paddy from farmers, Minister Johnston Fernando says that “ the PMB has no facilities to go to the farmer and purchase paddy. Initially the PMB had 386 stores but now it has dwindled to a mere 136”. Farmers further charge that the remaining stores were sold during the UNP administration. The number of PMB employees has also come down. Now farmers use a machine named ‘combined harvest’ to pick the harvest. After the machine picks the harvest, farmers must dry it in the sun. Otherwise, the paddy stock will rot after it is put into sacks. It has been found that moisture in the paddy increases if it is stored in sacks immediately after using the machine.

However, farmers in the Ampara district charge that the PMB still doesn’t purchase paddy from the Ampara District. Generally,the country faces a rice shortage in November, December and January as mill owners hide stocks with the intention of raising rice prices. However, Minister Johnston Fernando assured that this time around he will not permit such a situation to occur.

Posted in paddy , Paddy Marketing Board , Rice