10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. Ruwanthilaka Jayakody

Jathika Jana balawegaya· Gampaha· 21 October 2025 ·Oral question: Oral Question 7: Safeguard of Interests of Farmers, Traders and Consumers

Cost of LivingAgriculture
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Ruwanthilaka Jayakody asked the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation whether the Government accepts that farmers face high production costs and inadequate returns, while consumers pay high prices and intermediaries earn excessive profits. He sought confirmation that the existing marketing system should be changed and asked whether a policy or course of action will be formulated to protect the interests of farmers, traders and consumers.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Question to the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation:

¶ 02 (a) Will he accept that— (i) the living conditions of the farmers engaged in producing crops should be uplifted; (ii) farmers have to put in a lot of effort and invest a large amount of money on it; (iii) nevertheless, farmers are distressed as they do not get a price commensurate with the effort and expenditure on their agri produce; (iv) consumers have also had to pay high prices when buying agricultural products; (v) the wholesale and retail traders who are in between farmer and consumer earn excessive profits; and (vi) this system, which makes both farmer and consumer suffer, should be changed?

¶ 03 (b) If so, will he inform this House whether a course of action which safeguards the interests of farmers, traders and consumers be formulated in this regard?

¶ 04 (c) If not, why?

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Tuesday, 21 October 2025 ·No. 22635 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Ruwanthilaka Jayakody. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 21 October 2025. No. 22635. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/29540