Apr 13, Colombo: More than 900,000 kilos of vegetables have been purchased under the government’s program to purchase agricultural products directly from the farmers.

The government says that measures had been taken to distribute the purchased vegetables to all districts by midnight Sunday.

The program to purchase the vegetables from the farmers is implemented by Presidential Task Force on Essential Services.

The program is aimed at providing relief to the farmers who cannot sell their produce and distributing vegetables and fruits to the consumer during the festive season and during the Easter season without a shortage.

Vegetable purchases were carried out under the supervision of Divisional Secretaries for the past two days.

In addition, the Civil Defense Department has also implemented a vegetable purchasing program in the Anuradhapura District. The necessary funds for purchases have been released by the Anuradhapura District Secretary.

By midnight yesterday, 317,396 kilograms of vegetables had been shipped from the Nuwara Eliya Special Economic Center and 586,614 kilograms of vegetables had been shipped from the Dambulla and Thambuttegama Economic Centers.

Accordingly, the total quantity of vegetables transported to the districts is over 900,000 kilograms. The government has spent Rs. 28.7 million for the purchases.

Most of the vegetable stocks have been directed to the Matara, Colombo, Kalutara and Galle districts. The stocks will be marketed by local authorities at reasonable prices.

In some areas philanthropists have come forward and made arrangements to pay the government and distribute the vegetables free of charge among the public.

The Presidential Task Force on Essential Services says that farmers who were unable to sell their harvest, should not have any fear as the Government has instructed all District Secretaries not to allow the farmers’ harvest go to waste or to let the farmers to be distressed that they cannot sell the harvest.