The Finance Ministry has released Rs. 7 billion to be given to farmers to purchase fertilizer to use for paddy cultivation during the Maha season.
The Agriculture Ministry has been given Rs. 5.5 billion already - a further Rs. 1.5 billion is scheduled to be released today -Wednesday.
The government has decided to pay cash directly to paddy farmers instead of giving the fertilizer at a subsidized price.
Accordingly farmers will receive Rs. 25,000 per hectares for each Maha and Yala seasons.
This has enabled the government to reduce the operational cost of arranging fertilizer under subsidized scheme.
The government has allocated Rs. 55 billion for the purchasing of fertilizer for the Yala and Maha Season next year as well.
Since the Finance Ministry has compiled a database of farmers engaged in paddy cultivation, the money will be directly debited to the farmer’s accounts.