Until organic fertilizer is produced locally

• Hopes to produce required organic fertilizer within one and a half years

By Sandun A. Jayasekera

The government would import ample stocks of chemical fertilizer, pesticide and weedicides for controlled use in the agriculture, plantation and commercial crops sector until Sri Lanka produces organic fertilizer enough for the national requirement, Plantation Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said.

He expressed hopes that Sri Lanka would be in a position to supply the entire national requirement of organic fertilizer within one and a half years.

There must be short, middle and long-term solutions in place to address the fertilizer issue. The spot purchase of 100,000 litres of Nano Nitrogen Liquid Fertilizer’ (NNLF) from India is a short-term solution. Producing the entire requirement of organic fertilizer is the long-term solution. 

Educating people - the farmers in particular - on the merits and demerits of using organic and chemical fertilizer is the middle term solution,” Minister, Dr. Pathirana stressed.   

  
The government decided to ban the use of chemical fertilizer to save the lives of thousands of farmers who succumbed to complications related to Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) as prevention of disease is vital than treatment, he said.

However, if there was a loss of income of farmers or crops failure, the government would pay compensation to all affected, he added.  

“It is an established fact that the use of chemical fertilizer, insecticides, weedicides and pesticide for decades by farmers had a direct impact on triggering of CKD among farmers. Contamination of water resources, soil and air by the overuse of chemicals in farming districts - in paddy cultivation areas in particular – has killed 20,000 farmers and infected 400,000 in the last 20 years alone with renal failure. 

That is why the government decided to ban the use of highly harmful chemicals in farming and change to use organic fertilizer,” Minister Pathirana stressed.

The decision is a difficult one but a necessary one. Yes, the government, as well as farmers, are not used to it. But we must give up applying chemicals in cultivation sooner than later because it will bring much relief to do good to all, he added.

Minister, Dr. Pathirana assured that the government would pay farmers damages if and when there was a loss of income or crop failure as a result of adaptation to organic fertilizer from chemical fertilizer.