FARMERS TO BOYCOTT NEW RICE FESTIVAL

Want increase of Rs. 5 per kilo be applicable in the Maha season

Several farmer organisations in the Polonnaruwa District have decided not to participate in the new rice festival at the Polonnaruwa Galvihara today (07).

Representatives of the farmer organisations of Parakrama Samudra, Minneriya, Elahera, Kaudulla colonisation schemes who met yesterday at Hingurakgoda to discuss the increase of guaranteed price of paddy said they would boycott the ceremony.

They stressed that the increase of Rs. 5 per kilo of paddy should be applicable to the purchase of paddy in the Maha season without postponing it for the next Yala season.

President of the Kaudulla farmer organisation M.h.g.dhammika Arunashantha said the farmers in Po- lonnaruwa have been compelled to take poison as in the past.

“The farmers in Rajarata who met the requirements of rice of the country are today not in a position to celebrate the Sinhala New Year. Many farmers have given up paddy cultivation and taken to other trades to make a livelihood,” he said.

President of the Minneriya colonisation scheme farmer organisation Wijesuriya Perera pointed out that the increase of Rs.5 for a kilo of rice was inadequate in view of the heavy cost of paddy cultivation.

“We spend more than Rs. 50,000 to cultivate an acre of paddy. Today the paddy cultivators are running at a loss. Increase of fuel prices further burdened us. In this scenario the increase of Rs.5 would not bring us any relief,” Wijesuriya said.

President of the Elehera scheme farmer organisation Ananda Eddissuriya said the government’s paddy

The farmers in Rajarata who met the requirements of rice of the country are today not in a position to celebrate the Sinhala New Year. Many farmers have given up paddy cultivation and taken to other trades to make a livelihood

purchasing scheme was a failure and that it benefited only the private traders.

He pointed out that the government had purchased only about five percent of the paddy in Elehera scheme and that more than 80 per cent of the yield in the Maha season had been left at the mercy of the elephants for want of storage facilities.