Mullaitivu paddy farmers face ruin without fuel

By Dinasena Ratugamage

Farmers in Mullaitivu are unable to harvest their paddy fields due to the diesel shortage.The Mullaitivu Farmers’ Association said that 12,000 acres in the district needed to be harvested, but farmers had only managed to harvest 450 acres so far, the Association claimed.

Some combined harvesters had been left in the paddy fields because fuel had run out. A large number of bags containing harvested paddy are stored near the paddy fields as farmers are unable to transport them to stores for want of diesel.

“It is raining heavily these days and the paddy is being drenched and the harvested paddy runs the risk of germinating. We are in big trouble now. We don’t have fuel to do anything,” a spokesman for the Association said.