Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has called on the government to prepare a proper pricing formula for paddy, warning that serious discrepancies exist in the profit figures currently being claimed for farmers.
Premadasa raised the issue in Parliament today (05), questioning the accuracy of the government's guaranteed price scheme for paddy purchases.
He said that although the government claims paddy varieties yield profits of Rs. 44, Rs. 33 and Rs. 31 respectively, Hansard records from June 24, 2026, show that Nadu was purchased at Rs. 120, Samba at Rs. 130 and Kiri Samba at Rs. 140 during the Maha season.
He noted that the Agriculture Minister had stated that the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute had already calculated production costs during the Yala season had risen to as much as Rs. 137 per kilogram, driven by higher harvesting expenses and increased ploughing costs resulting from rising fuel prices.
He said that while the government itself acknowledges it costs Rs. 137 to produce a kilogram of paddy, it simultaneously claims farmers are making large profits, a contradiction that raises serious questions when set against the guaranteed price actually paid.
The Opposition Leader said farmers themselves reject the profit figures being attributed to them, insisting instead that they are incurring serious losses under the present guaranteed price scheme.
Given these inconsistencies, he proposed that a sound and well considered pricing formula be prepared for paddy from the next season onwards.
Premadasa also pointed out that any government purchases only between 6 and 9 per cent of the total harvest, since farmers retain a portion for their own consumption, and argued that small and medium scale mill owners must be strengthened to handle the purchase of the remaining 90 per cent.
He said many of these mill owners are currently unable to access concessionary loans because they have been blacklisted, and suggested that restructuring their loans, removing them from the blacklist and offering low interest credit would enable them to purchase paddy more effectively.
He added that regardless of which party holds office, these structural problems demand solutions, and called on the government to implement a proper programme to correct what he described as a flawed pricing formula.
*Video: https://youtu.be/Lheq1yxKm1Y*
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