Farmers need more storage facilities, Prelate tells Minister

By J.A.L.Jayasinghe  

There should be more paddy storage facilities in the cultivation regions, the Mahanayake of the Malwatte Chapter the Most Ven. Thibbatuwawe Sri Sumangala Thera said on Friday.  
“Farmers have lamented about insufficient storage facilities for their harvest before it was sold,” he told Agriculture Minister P. Harrison, who had visited him at the Malwatte Maha Viharaya to invite him for the Aswanu Pooja to be held at the Sri Dalada Maligawa.  

He advised the Minister to look into the issues of fertilizer, irrigation facilities and threats the farmers faced from wild elephants while pointing out that the farmers complained that officials did not pay much attention to the problems faced by them due to lack of irrigation facilities.  

Responding to the prelate the Minister said that paddy purchasing price had been increased and the farmers would get the new price from January.  

He stated that there were problems in storing paddy only in two warehouses owing to wild elephant attacks, but the ministry was in the process of making amends.  
He assured the Mahanayake Thera that there wouldn’t be any fertilizer problem in future.  

Speaking to the media after his meeting with the prelate the Minister said that the UNP would name its Presidential candidate in due course and that the SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa was not a challenge to the UNP candidate.