The Rs. 8,000 million given by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be credited to the farmers’ accounts within the next two weeks, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.
He said the ADB offered the above amount to the farmers of Sri Lanka as per a request made by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
“The amount of paddy land earmarked for paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka is 800,000 hectares. The amount of paddy land that has already been cultivated and is still being cultivated has exceeded 760,000 hectares,” he said.
Accordingly, arrangements have been made to credit Rs. 10,000 to a farmer who cultivates one hectare of paddy and Rs. 20,000 to a farmer who cultivates two hectares into their accounts, Minister Amaraweera said.
Under this program, Rs. 4,000 million will be credited to farmers’ accounts today (29), and Rs. 2,000 million tomorrow (30). The rest of the Rs.2,000 million will been sent to the farmers’ accounts after January 1.
However, within two weeks, the money related to all paddy farmers will be credited to their own accounts, the minister said.
Source – Daily MIrror
