The government launched a programme to purchase paddy from cultivators under a Guaranteed Price Scheme. Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) centers across the country has made arrangements to purchase a kilo of Samba variety at 50 rupees and Nadu at 45 rupees. PMB purchases 2000 kilograms of paddy from each farmer.

Farmers in the North Central Province said that they could achieve more benefits if measures are adopted to make the process further efficient as they have to wait in long queues near the warehouses when they come to sell their harvest to the Paddy Marketing Board.

They also have to make an additional payment for the vehicles in which they bring their stocks. It is their view that they could save time as well as money if the officials of the Paddy Marketing Board adopted efficient measures to purchase their stocks.

According to the views expressed by the North Central cultivators, they could achieve more benefits if the Paddy Marketing Board make arrangements to increase the stocks purchased from each farmer to 3,000 kilogrammes.

The Anuradhapura Regional Manager W.R. Ajith Shantha when inquired of the possibility of increasing the purchases made from the farmers said that PMB had taken a decision to purchase 2,000 kilogrammes of paddy from each farmer with the intention of according an opportunity for more cultivators to sell their yield.

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