Rs.1b earmarked for three warehouses ahead of record harvest

Tuesday, 2 February 2016 00:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Uditha Jayasinghe

As the paddy industry eyes a record harvest in 2016 the Government has earmarked Rs. 1 billion to build new warehouses in three districts to provide storing facilities to thousands of farmers.

The warehouses are to be built in key paddy production regions of Polonnaruwa, Kilinochchi and Ratnapura. Cabinet last week decided to fast track the construction of these warehouses under a Cabinet paper presented by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake. The new facilities will be used to store paddy, maize, and sesame.

The decision comes after much controversy when the Government used buildings within the Mattala Airport last year to store excess stores of paddy following record harvests. Storing the harvest till it is ready to be released to the market has been a challenge for the authorities over the years, the Cabinet paper observed.

The Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB) has been given the consultancy services to begin accelerated construction of the warehouses.

Sri Lanka is expecting a record rice production of 2.93 million metric tonnes in the current major cropping season (Maha) up 7% from the average over the last three years, forecasters have said. Harvesting will begin from the Eastern Province, Kurunegala and Moneragala Districts. In January, about 9% of the crop will come off the fields, in February 54% and in March 37%.

The Department of Agriculture at the University of Peradeniya said up to December 2015, 769,000 hectares of paddy had already been sown, which was 5% higher than the average of the last three years. This was 92% of the targeted 838,142 hectares targeted from this year.

In Kurunegala, Amapara and the Mahaweli H system, higher than targeted extents had been sown. In Batticaloa, 12,500 hectares have been damaged by floods while pest damage in Ampara, Kaluthara, Galle and Nuwara Eliya districts had taken the total to 14.149 hectares.