The Finance Ministry has released Rs 5.5 billion to the Agriculture Ministry to be distributed among the farmers to purchase fertiliser for the Maha season. As per the request of the agriculture Ministry; another RS 1.5 billion is to be released today.
The government decided to grant cash to paddy farmers instead of giving fertiliser under subsidised price.
Accordingly, farmers will receive Rs. 25,000 per hectares for the Maha and Yala seasons separately to purchase fertiliser.
This has enabled the government to reduce the operational cost of arranging fertiliser under subsidised scheme. For the next year too, the government has allocated Rs. 55 billion for fertiliser for the Yala and Maha Season.
Since the Finance Ministry has compiled a database of paddy farmers once the request has been received from the Agriculture Ministry, the money will be debited to the farmers accounts. Farmers will get Rs. 50,000 per hectare.