NE DS calls for the protection of farmers

Says Agriculture Department and CAA have failed in their missions

The Agriculture Department was not taking appropriate measures to ensure a reasonable price for agricultural products beyond their implementation of various programmes to increase the production of cultivation, Nuwara Eliya District Secretary Hellen Meegasmulla said.

She said so at the Nuwara Eliya District Agriculture Committee meeting.

She said that the brokers were profiting on the hard labour of the farmers leaving the consumers to pay high prices for farmers’ products.

“Officials of the Consumer Protection Authority seem to have confined their duties to weighing and measuring, while Agriculture Department is more concerned about research work and other programmes to maximise the produce. But they have neglected the most important aspect of ensuring a reasonable price for the agricultural products, thereby increasing the living conditions of the farmers,” she said.

“Litres of milk bought at Rs.100 from the dairy farmers are sold at value added price of Rs.200 by the processors of milk products, leaving both the farmer and the consumer to bear their profit,” she said.

She also said the need for regulating the price at least of vegetables on high demand, to protect the farmer and the consumer.

The Chairman of the Nuwara Eliya District Govi Mandalaya R.M. Rathnayake said the Agriculture Department had not yet paid for the seed beans collected from the seed farmers in Mathurata and Mandarampuram.

“This discourages the farmers who produced seed beans in large quantities. Now have limited their productions to 3,000 to 4,000 kilogrammes and they are selling their products to private traders,” he said.