The request made by the Polonnaruwa Parakrama Samudra Farmers' Organization has been fulfilled. The Minister of Agriculture has presented a Cabinet paper to increase compensation for crop damage to Rs.100,000 per acre

The Polonnaruwa Parakrama Samudra Farmers’ Organization yesterday (20) requested the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, to increase the crop damage compensation amount from Rs.40, 000 per acre to Rs.100, 000 per acre.

A group of members of the Polonnaruwa Parakrama Samudra Farmers’ Organization met the Minister of Agriculture and plantation Industries yesterday afternoon at the Ministry of Agriculture and held a discussion on the issues faced by farmers and the farmers’ organization also presented a series of proposals to the Minister.
Among the proposals presented by them, one of the leading proposals was that crop damage caused by drought, floods and wild animals is increasing every year, so the compensation amount of 40,000 rupees paid by the government for an acre of crop damage should be increased to 100,000 rupees.
Accordingly, a compensation of 250,000 rupees per hectare will be awarded.
The Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, who expressed his opinion, stated that he has already submitted a Cabinet paper to increase the crop damage compensation to 100,000 rupees per acre, and that the Honorable President Ranil Wickramasinghe has agreed to it.
Under this crop damage compensation scheme, compensation is provided for crop damage caused by drought, flood and wild animals. Accordingly, six types of crops are covered under this agricultural insurance scheme. The six crops are paddy, maize, chillies, onion, soyabean and potato.

The notable aspect of this crop damage compensation is that no contribution is charged from the farmers for the crop damage compensation.

The minister also mentioned that he has instructed the Agriculture and Farmers’ Insurance Board to provide immediate crop damage compensation for crop damage caused by heavy rains this Yala season.
Apart from this, the minister said that the government does not levy customs duty on imported agricultural equipment and also mentioned that the government has taken steps to exempt all agricultural equipment from all taxes. He also mentioned that even if the VAT is levied on some agricultural equipment, the tax is refundable.
A group of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries also participated in this discussion.