Rice price escalating; buffer stocks processed

(December 11, 2010) Sri Lanka government says that the cabinet has granted approval to release 70,000 metric tons of rice from the government paddy stores to the market during the upcoming festive season.

The aim of this measure is to prevent the escalation of the price of the Sri Lankans' major staple food.
Treasury will release Rs. 430 million for processing paddy.

The rice of these buffer stocks will be sold by the Corporative Wholesale Establishment and Cooperative Society department stores.

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Posted in buffer stock , paddy , Rice

Sri Lanka to adopt Indian method to store paddy

(September 06, 2010) Sri Lanka has adopted Indian method of storing paddy outdoors. It was first put into practice at the Walpita Paddy Storage Complex in Divulapitiya on Friday (September 3) with the participation of the Minister of Co-operatives and Internal Trade Johnston Fernando.

Minister Fernando told The Island that six Indian experts were in the country to assist in storing paddy. The paddy loaded in gunny bags/sacks could be stored on a wooden platform on stilts and covered by thick polythene. That way, experts say, paddy could be kept in good condition for twelve to eighteen months.

The Minister said that the excess paddy from the Polonnaruwa District had been stored at the Walpita Storage Complex in keeping with the Indian method.

Sri Lanka was now self sufficient in paddy said Minister Johnston Fernando adding that according to estimates by the Agriculture Department the paddy harvest was about 1.5 million MT. It was problematic to purchase and store so much of paddy but the Indian method would be of great help.

Minister Fernando said that purchasing paddy from farmers would not be a problem in the future and the Indian method would be adopted in Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Ampara districts from today (September 6).

-Lal Gunasekara (The Island)

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Posted in paddy , Rice , storing paddy

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.

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Posted in paddy , Paddy Marketing Board , Rice

No programme to purchase paddy; Price declines worry the farmers in Sri Lanka

(August 08, 2010) The farmers in Sri Lanka’s major rice cultivation districts complain that the lack of proper programme of the government to purchase paddy has caused sharp decline in purchasing prices at Yala season. They also point out that the hyped state programme for purchasing paddy is a sham.

The farmers point out that the price of a kilo of Nadu rice is between Rs. 15 and 17 while the government registered price is Rs. 28 per kilo.

The price of a kilo of Samba rice is Rs. 18 and 20 while the government registered price is Rs. 30 per kilo, farmers of Polonnaruwa say.

The private traders have taken advantage of the inefficiency of the Paddy Marketing Board to bring down the prices.

Meanwhile the Chairman of the Paddy Marketing Board K.B. Jayasinghe said that the paddy stores in Polonnaruwa district is still stocked with the harvest of the last season and steps have been taken to shift them to food stores in Veyangoda and Divulapitiya in the Western Province.

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Posted in Government registered price for paddy , Paddy Marketing Board , Rice

Destruction of Aththidiya paddy fields in Colombo

(June 22, 2010) Aththidiya, the largest wetland environment system in Colombo district has been destroyed by land filling and other human activities.

In the past 32 years, 966 acres of paddy fields in Aththidiya and Bellanwila areas around this wetland have been destroyed as a result of this says, the Department of Agriculture. These paddy fields have not been used for paddy cultivation after 1978, the agricultural officials point out.

However, this paddy cultivation was carried out in these fields for generations successfully earlier. Land filling, industrial waste, water stagnation and salinization has prompted the farmers to give up these lands. Since the commercial value of the lands in Colombo district is very high, people often fill the given up paddy fields for constructions.

Some local government institutes use this wetland as garbage dumps causing severe damage to the water resources as well. Although the government has declared Aththidiya wetland as a forest reserve, it has not been any effect to avoid the destruction, the residents of the area say.

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Posted in Aththidiya , attidiya , pady cultivation , Rice , wetlands

Paddy purchasing prices down below government registered price in Sri Lanka

(March 03, 2009) Reports from Polonnaruwa say that the paddy purchasing price has de-escalated sharply as the harvesting is underway in the major Maha season. Polonnaruwa is one of the major rice cultivation districts of Sri Lanka.

The purchasing price for a kilo of paddy has gone far below down the government registered price. Private businessmen purchase Nadu paddy now for prices as low as Rs. 20 per kilo, farmers pointed out.

The much hyped programme of purchasing paddy at the government registered price of Rs. 28 for a kilo of Nadu rice and Rs. 30 per a kilo of Samba rice is unseen anywhere in the district, farmers said.

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Posted in Government registered price for paddy , paddy , Polonnaruwa , Rice , rice farming

Sri Lanka state to purchase 140,000 metric tons of paddy

(February 05, 2009) Sri Lanka Ministry of Agriculture Development and Peasant Services says that the state will purchase 140,000 metric tons of paddy in the Maha season. A cabinet paper has been submitted to allocate Rs. 4060 million in this purpose, a spokesman of the Ministry said.

The harvesting of the Maha season is to begin by the  end of this month.

The state expects to purchase 50,000 metric tons from Polonnaruwa district where the Minister of Agriculture Development and Peasant Services Maithripala Sirisena's family members have big rice processing and marketing business. From Anuradhapura district and the Eastern Provinces 30,000 metric tons will be purchased while 15,000 metric tons each will be purchased from Northwestern and Southern Provinces.

The government registered price for a kilo of paddy this year is Rs. 28 for Nadu rice and Rs. 30 for Samba rice. Currently, the price of a kilo of Nadu rice is around Rs. 60 in the market and a kilo of Samba rice is around Rs. 85.

Paddy processed by the state is usually sold to the private sector later to be processed and issued to the market. A portion is kept as a buffer stock. State paddy purchasing is a mechanism aimed at regulating the market prices in harvesting times so that the farmers can have a reasonable price.

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Posted in marketing of agricultural products , paddy , Rice

Govt. distributes paddy seed with wild strain that affects paddy cultivation

(January 31, 2009) Agrarian analysts suspect that a wild paddy strain is rapidly spreading paddy seeds that have allegedly been mixed with seed paddy distributed to farmers by state authorities. Compounding the issue, no programme has been envisaged to tackle this problem.

Agrarian analysts point out that a type of ‘wild paddy’ which has begun to spread in many areas of the country is reponsible for reducing the paddy harvest in the country.

“Wild plants directly and indirectly harm cultivation. The life cycle of some of the insects found in paddy fields are directly connected to these wild plants,” says Prof. Buddhi Marambe, Dean of the faculty of Agriculture of the University of Peradeniya.

They observed a change in paddy cultivation in 1998, where paddy seeds fell as soon as the paddy plant matured. Prof. Buddhi Marambe and Dr. Lakshman Amarasinghe of the Ministry of Agriculture continued studies on the problem and they found that there was no difference between this wild paddy strain and the Oryza Sativa paddy strain which is used by in Sri Lanka.

The wild paddy seed has a long or short ‘attachment’ at the end of it. However, it is difficult to recognize it from the ‘attachment’ because most old paddy types too bear the same feature.

Dr. Lakshman Amarasingha advised paddy farmers to leave the paddy field for two or three weeks after preparing it for cultivation so that the wild paddy plants would come up during that time. Once the wild paddy plants have come up, farmers could destroy them with a weedicide. Using this method wild paddy plants were eradicated in 1999 but during 2000,2001 years the problem came up again. The issue has risen its head again causing immense problems to farmers.
-Saliya Kumara Gunasekara (Lakbima News)

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Posted in paddy , Rice , rice farming

Seminar on the dangers faced by the ‘Rice Culture of Asia’

A seminar on the dangers faced by the ‘Rice Culture of Asia’ with special focus on Sri Lanka is to be held in view of the 50^th Anniversary of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) of Philippines on 19^th of July, 2009 at the Mehaweli Center Auditorium from 10.00 am – 02.30 pm with the participation of peasantry and intellectuals.


The keynote address will be given by Mr. Danilo Ramos, the secretary General of the Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP) and the Asian Peasant Council (APC). He will be speaking on “Asian rice culture and the international rice research and technology”. Mr. Ramos is a leading campaigner on the call to abolish IRRI and its affairs in the Philippines and Asia. The Seminar is organized by the Vikalpani People’s Alliance and the Union for the Protection of the rice culture in Sri Lanka. 

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Posted in APC , Asia , Government , International Rice Research Institute , Philippines , Rice , Sri Lanka