Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2023-01-16

Government Paddy Purchasing Programme for the Maha Season 2022/23

- It has been reported that there may be a surplus of paddy in the Maha Season 2022/23 according to the data of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Development. Accordingly, in order to protect both farmer and consumer, it has been identified the necessity of the Government intervention to purchase some extent of paddy outside the traditional paddy purchasing system. It has been planned to implement the proposed paddy purchasing programme enabling to provide an additional relief to the identified low income families to maintain their living standard under the prevailing economic situation. Accordingly, the proposal made by the Hon. President to implement the Government Paddy Purchasing Programme 2022/23 through District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries with the participation of small and medium scale paddy millers so as to provide each family with 10kg of rice per month for a period of two months, covering two (02) million identified families, was approved by the Cabinet.