The cabinet paper issued by President Ranil Wickramasinghe to provide 10 kg of rice per family per month for 2 months to 02 million low-income families, including Samurdhi beneficiaries, has been approved.
Accordingly, 40,000 metric tons of rice is required for this purpose.
For that, the government needs to purchase about 61,600 metric tons of paddy.
This program is proposed to be implemented through District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries with the help of small and medium scale paddy mill owners.
Under the District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries, rice is to be distributed among the low income earners including identified Samurdhi beneficiaries using the existing system.
The Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment will coordinate with the District Secretaries and issue necessary instructions to them.
8,040 million has been estimated for this purpose. Including Rs 6,200 million for paddy purchase, Rs 290 million for paddy drying, Rs 590 million for paddy sawing, Rs 200 million for packing cost, Rs 160 million as additional payment to paddy mill owners, Rs 600 million as transportation cost.
However, the estimated cost of the program will vary depending on changes in market prices.
If a need arises, a budget allocation of around Rs. 10,000 million will be used for this purpose.
According to the data of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agricultural Development, the area cultivated with paddy in the 2022/2023 season is about 732,201 hectares.
Thus, the expected paddy yield is 3.3 million MT and the amount of rice that can be produced by this is about 2.2 million MT.
Considering the country’s monthly rice requirement which is about 210,000 MT, the President’s Office says that it is observed that there may be a surplus of rice in the coming season.
Accordingly, to protect the paddy farmer as well as the consumer, it is necessary for the government to intervene in the purchase of a certain amount of paddy in the 2022/23 season.
Furthermore, due to the extremely difficult economic situation in the country, it is necessary to protect the low-income groups in the society from the negative effects of this crisis by supporting them in maintaining their nutritional level and this group has been identified as about 2 million families, including the Samurdhi families.
Although the government has provided additional amount of money for that group till April 2023, there is a need to take care of these low income earners for some period.
It is expected that the paddy harvest in this season of 2022/2023 will be higher than the previous season.
It is appropriate to use some amount of rice to provide additional help to the identified low income earners to maintain their standard of living.
This program will benefit the farmers as well as the low incomers of the country.