Despite last season’s failure PMB to commence paddy purchasing

By Yohan Basura   

Despite paddy purchasing by the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) having miserably failed during the last harvesting season, the board has announced that it would commence purchasing paddy cultivated during the Yala Season from this week.   
PMB Chairman Manjula Pinnalanda said that the PMB would purchase paddy from the farmers at the same price as it had fixed during the last Maha Season. Accordingly, the farmers will get a price of Rs. 120 for a kilo of Nadu rice, Rs. 125 for Samba, Rs. 132 for Keeri Samba.   
 Pinnalanda said that around 210,000 metric tonnes of paddy could be stored in the warehouses belonging to the PMB. It must be recalled that the farmers refused to sell their produce to the PMB during the Maha season as the prices paid by private traders for paddy were considerably higher than those of the PMB.