Paddy farmers in the Eastern and North Central Provinces are reportedly being forced to sell their possessions to repay loans taken for harvesting, fuel and labour, as they struggle to sell their produce and receive payments for paddy already purchased by the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB).
The National Agrarian Unity (NAU) raised concerns that farmers who sold paddy to the PMB have yet to receive payment, despite the stipulated payment period being one to two weeks.
NAU President Anuradha Tennakoon told The Daily Morning that farmers who had harvested their Yala 2026 crop were now holding large stocks of paddy at their homes, while the PMB was purchasing only around 1,500 kg to 2,500 kg from each farmer.
“Farmers who have cultivated around four to five hectares have a 10,000-15,000 kg harvest. They have to pay back what they were in debt for – labour, fertiliser, machines, etc. At this point, they have tended to sell their possessions in order to pay back these debts as there is no way for them to pay back,” he said.
Tennakoon added that even farmers who had managed to sell their paddy had not received their payments.
“Some farmers in Ampara sold their paddy a month ago and they are yet to receive the money. They should be receiving it within a week or two,” he said.
The NAU also accused the Government of failing to ensure the proper functioning of the interest-free loan scheme introduced to encourage private-sector mill owners to purchase paddy.
Tennakoon said the scheme was facing two main obstacles, with small-scale mill owners lacking adequate storage facilities and being reluctant to purchase paddy due to fears of incurring losses if the Government suddenly imports paddy.
“They don’t have enough storage facilities to buy paddy. Secondly, they are afraid to buy paddy from us as, if the Government imports paddy, they are in hot water. Hence, there is hesitation to go for the loan scheme,” he said.
The inability of farmers to sell paddy to either the Government or private mill owners has been a persistent issue, with successive measures introduced to address the problem, including loans for small-scale mill owners through District Secretariats.
Attempts by The Daily Morning to contact Agriculture Ministry Secretary D P Wickremasinghe were unsuccessful.