Govt. urged to look after all members of farming community

By Rathindra Kuruwita

The government was concerned about only the paddy cultivators and neglected the other members of the farming community, National Organiser of the All-Ceylon Agrarian Federation (ACAF), Namal Karunaratne said yesterday.

“The government has forgotten there are farmers other than rice growers . There are many who grow vegetables. None of their problems have been addressed. They too need fertiliser and other inputs,” he said.

Karunaratne said paddy farmers were essential to ensure Sri Lanka’s food sovereignty and that he appreciated the efforts taken to provide them with fertiliser, etc.

“However, providing the farmers with fertiliser is not the be-all and end-all of agriculture. The government imported rice when farmers harvested their paddy. Once farmers sell the crop at a reduced rate, the government issues a gazette banning the import of rice. This is an eyewash. Successive governments have done this. This will happen next year too,” he added.

 Meanwhile, President of the Sri Lanka Small and Medium Scale Paddy Owners Association U. K. Semasinghe said it was the government’s duty to maintain a fair price for rice and paddy but was too impotent to do so vis-a-vis the powerful rice millers.

“The Paddy Marketing Board is in a shambles and can maintain sufficient stocks of paddy for want of storage facilities.. Everyone knows this and because of that the businessmen ignore government policies. Farmers have no other option but to sell the harvest to big businessmen because the government is unreliable,” he said.