Army purchases paddy for PMB to end rice mafia

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has facilitated the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) to purchase over 3,268,600 kilos of paddy worth Rs. 163.4 million during the last two weeks, the Defence Ministry said yesterday. 

 
SLA, under the directives of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has stepped into purchasing paddy in an attempt to end the rice mafia trade and ensure a fair price to the farmers.   
The PMB is now directly purchasing paddy from the farmers through the SLA facilitated programme.   

According to SLA Commander Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva, the programme is coordinated through District Secretariats with the assistance of the Security Force Headquarters around the country.   

The highest quantity, 1,888,950 kilos of paddy has been purchased by the PMB from the Eastern Province with the help of the Security Forces Headquarters (SFHQ) East, 870,350 kilos of paddy from Vavuniya through SFHQ (Wanni) and the balance 509,350 kilos of paddy from other SFHQs areas including West, Kilinochchi, Jaffna 
and Mullaitivu.   

Among the total paddy purchased, 1,196,950 kilos of ‘Keeri Samba’ and 1,436,000 kilos of ‘Sudu Nadu’ have been recorded as the highest quantity of paddy varieties purchased by the PMD so far.   

Army Commander Lt.Gen. Shavendra Silva has assigned Centre Commandant of the Army Service Corps Brig. Indrajith Kandanarachchi to coordinate the programme.   
Military Spokesman Brig. Chandana Wickramasinghe said the Army has renovated 38 warehouses, which belongs to the PMB and were in a dilapidated state.   
PMB Director Operations Saman Palitha Bandara said the SLA’s involvement in the paddy purchasing had helped the farmers to obtain a fair price and also to promote correct post-harvesting techniques as the SLA had made the farmers aware of the programme.   

“Last year, the farmers received Rs. 37 for a kilo of Nadu and Rs. 41 for a kilo of Samba, but under this programme the farmers were able get Rs. 50 for a kilo of paddy giving them a fair price,” he said.   

Government’s target is to purchase 10% of the total production, which is amounted to 300,000 metric tonnes out of the total national production

According to Bandara, the government’s target is to purchase 10% of the total production, which is amounted to 300,000 metric tonnes out of the total national production.