A government plan to stock up 140,000 tonnes of paddy to thwart a possible attempt by the private sector to exploit the market in the next few months has failed due to a vast majority of farmers declining to sell their product at the prices fixed by the government.

The government priced a kilo of samba at Rs 30 and Nadu at Rs. 28 early this year.

A senior government official said that the Paddy Marketing Board and the Government Agent Ampara had managed to buy approximately 4,800 and 900 tonnes of paddy respectively. He acknowledged that the private sector traders had been able to purchase huge stocks of paddy due to attractive prices offered by them.

The government competed with several major private sector traders, including Siripala Gamlath, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Services and Dudley, brother of Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services Minister Maithripala Sirisena. Gamlath, who is the brother-in-law of Sirisena, is the proprietor of ‘Nipuna’ while Dudley runs ‘Araliya’– two of the largest selling brands.

A senior official with the Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services Ministry told The Island that on a presidential directive, Rs. 10 million each had been allocated to Government Agents of 16 districts to acquire paddy stocks. According to the official, funds had been allocated to the GAs of Ampara, Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Puttlam, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa, Matale, Badulla, Moneragala, Kandy, Vavuniya, Hambantota, Ratnapura and Mullaitivu.

Ariyasiri Vithanage, Chairman of TradLanka Agricultural Enterprises (Pvt) Limited said that some farmers and middlemen had hoarded large stocks of paddy. "They are seeking unreasonable profits at the expense of the entire industry," Vithanage told The Island, emphasising the urgent need on the part of the government to meet any eventuality.

He asserted that farmers should be able to sell their product at the fixed prices as the government, despite severe difficulties had provided them with heavily subsidised fertiliser. He urged the government to prevent the use of paddy as animal feed. "Bring in the necessary legislation immediately, to stop this despicable practice," he said, warning failure on the part of the government would be catastrophic.

He explained the difficulty in selling samba and nadu at Rs. 70 and Rs. 65, respectively, unless farmers agreed to sell their paddy at the fixed prices. Early this year, the government was forced to introduce price control and order paddy stocks from Burma to meet a severe shortfall in the market.

Addressing a public gathering at Aralaganwila in Mahaweli System ‘B’, Minister Maithripala Sirisena last July vowed to compete with the private sector to purchase paddy. He said that the Paddy Marketing Board was ready to purchase paddy at the current market prices.

Vajira Priyankara of CIC Agri Business said that they had always targeted a quality product. He said that they had reached an understanding with a selected group of farmers to acquire quality stocks of paddy at higher prices. It would be extremely difficult to maintain quality unless market forces were allowed to decide paddy prices. Responding to our queries, he asserted that a quality product couldn’t be made available at current fixed prices.

Siripala Gamlath, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Services, too, last August said he was confident of implementing the President’s directive.

Trade Secretary Dr. R. M. K. Ratnayaka yesterday said that the government was exploring the possibility of importing 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes of rice from Burma to overcome the shortage. This was necessary to thwart the private sector from causing an artificial scarcity in the market, he said adding that the government couldn’t have acquired paddy stocks at the prices offered by the private sector.