Arrangements are being finalized to purchase the paddy harvest of the 2022/23 Maha Season in Anuradhapura District on the basis a kilogramme of dried paddy at Rs.100 and paddy with a humidity level more than 14% at Rs.80, Anuradhapura Government Agent Janaka Jayasundara told the Daily News.
He said they had initially selected 50 medium and small scale millers who were being entrusted to purchase paddy in the district. "We have got Rs.100 million in funds to start the purchasing mechanism covering the whole district. We have requested for Rs.3,000 million in funds to purchase paddy. The stocks of paddy being bought would be milled to implement the relief measure of issuing bags of rice weighing 10 kilos per every low income families as recommended by the Divisional Secretaries in April, as instructed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe. We plan to distribute the relief rice quota to around 110,000 low income families including Samurdhi beneficiaries under this programme in the Anuradhapura District, while the surplus stocks of rice would be dispatched to the Nuwara Eliya, Gampaha, Colombo, Galle Districts etc," the Anuradhapura Government Agent Jayasundara said.
"We have already entered into agreements with selected millers for the realization of paddy buying milling and the marketing programme," Jayasundara said.
He said that around 121,000 hectares in the Anuradhapura District have been cultivated with paddy in the 2022/23 Maha Season. "The district has storage facilities for around 40,000 metric tons of paddy while the millers would provide storage space for an additional 22,000 metric tons," Jayasundara added.
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