By Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama

COLOMBO (Daily Mirror) - A sum of Rs. 1,000 million has been given as the first installment of the financial subsidy to all the farmers who cultivate paddy, the Agriculture Ministry said.

It is said that the government is expected to spend Rs. 12 billion on all the farmers, and it has been decided to cultivate 800,000 hectares of paddy this year.

While taking into account how the paddy cultivation activities will be started, further steps will be taken to account for the relevant financial allocations.

Accordingly, the government has decided to provide a financial subsidy of Rs. 15,000 per hectare to all the farmers to purchase fertilizers for paddy cultivation for this Maha season.

The Finance Ministry has released the first billion rupees of the amount to be accounted for by farmers to the Agriculture Ministry, and the crediting of the money to the accounts of the district offices was done today (06).

"It should not be assumed that this money will be available from farmers' accounts tomorrow. Because in the case of paddy cultivation, this money belongs to the person doing the cultivation. Some paddy fields are not cultivated by the owner. Therefore, we are paying attention to that as well. We are taking steps to give the relevant money to the relevant person who grows the paddy. For that, the registers should be re-examined. Those who cultivate paddy fields have a different situation in every cropping season," the minister said.