The Hon. Chathura Galappaththi

¶ 01 Madam Deputy Chairperson of Committees, Hon. Rohana Bandara has today brought a practical proposal titled “Formulating a programme to maintain a government buffer stock of rice,” focusing on the challenges faced both by farmers and consumers. When we ask ministers for long-term solutions, they usually cite two points: maintaining storage and creating a data system for the paddy harvest. Beyond those two, we have not heard anything new.

¶ 02 I have raised this before, and I will further clarify and add value to Hon. Rohana Bandara’s proposal by submitting my own suggestion to the Government. We only talk here about storing paddy. But will bulk storage alone solve the problem? For example, in an emergency, if we need rice, it takes time to mill stored paddy into rice. Do we have the required milling systems? Do we have a sufficient number of small and medium-scale mills? Because of these two gaps—time for conversion and inadequate milling capacity—an oligopoly, a “rice mafia,” has emerged.

¶ 03 Therefore, for a durable solution, the Government should not only maintain buffer stocks of paddy but also buffer stocks of milled rice. Someone may ask: “Paddy can generally be stored for about two years, but for how long can rice be stored?” To my knowledge, rice can typically be stored around three months, but that generally requires chemicals like phosphine. However, local experts have researched methods to store rice for over 15 months. In 2012, a pilot demonstrated success by upgrading storage with mechanical aeration.

¶ 04 Under the banner of national food security, the Food Department initiated a project using foreign university research, led locally by former Dean Prof. Leelananda Rajapaksha of the University of Moratuwa. They used World War II airplane hangars near the Veyangoda Economic Centre—200x100 structures—as storage for the pilot. It was confirmed that rice could be stored for more than 15 months. The project hinges on three core objectives: ensuring rice availability (e.g., a buffer to bridge the gap between Yala and Maha seasons), emergency access to rice (not merely paddy), and stabilizing retail prices. To keep prices stable, we need buffer stocks of rice, not only paddy.

¶ 05 Madam Deputy Chairperson of Committees, please allow me a brief extension.

¶ 06 The two key advantages of this method are: (1) the ability to store rice for 15 months, and (2) an extremely low storage cost—about 90 cents per kilogram per year. I urge Government attention to this project and, with those remarks, I support the motion.

¶ 07 Question proposed.