Cabinet nod to lift ban on glyphosate for 36 months

The Cabinet of Ministers yesterday approved the proposal presented by Plantation Industries Minister Navin Dissanayake to lift the ban on the glyphosate weedicide for the tea and rubber industries for a period of 36 months.

The approval was conditional on setting up a proper mechanism within one month to monitor the glyphosate usage, a top state official told Mirror Business.

The Tea Research Institute (TRI) and Rubber Research Institute (RRI) are expected come up with a mechanism within a one-month period to monitor the usage of glyphosate by the regional plantation companies (RPCs) and smallholders in order to ensure that glyphosate is not used on other crops and to avoid mixing the weedicide with water sources, the 
official said.

Once the mechanism is in place, the RPCs will be able to import glyphosate for their plantations. 
The TRI and RRI will monitor the glyphosate usage cooperating with the other regulatory agencies such as the Central Environmental Authority and National Water Supply and Drainage Board.

Dissanayake last week announced that President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe agreed to lift the ban on glyphosate for the tea and rubber industries after considering its economic cost to the country.

The Plantation Industries Ministry estimates the loss of the annual yield for the tea industry due to the glyphosate ban to be around Rs.33.2 million, while the reduction in export earnings is estimated at Rs.26.7 billion per year.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet also approved a proposal to commence a programme to find organic alternatives to glyphosate to reduce the dependency on the controversial weedicide. 

Dissanayake earlier said that the government is planning to replace glyphosate with an organic herbicide within the next three to four years. (NF)