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Fertiliser shortage due to hoarding ahead of ban

05 May 2021

  • Stocks expected to last till mid Sept.-year end

  • 86,000 MTs of chemical fertiliser imports coming soon: Ministry

  • Tea planters warn of 50% harvest drop, Plantation Ministry in discussions

  • Will give organic farming a bad name: Organic agriculturalists warn

  The ongoing chemical fertiliser shortage has been aggravated due to increased fertiliser hoarding by some farmers, following approval by the Cabinet of Ministers to ban the usage of chemical fertiliser in the country last month. “There has been a shortage of chemical fertiliser for a while now. Farmers have been hoarding fertiliser, and with the announcement of the ban on chemical fertiliser, this situation has been aggravated. Farmers from around the country have contacted me, saying that they cannot purchase fertiliser these days,” All Ceylon Farmers’ Federation Convenor Namal Karunaratne told The Morning yesterday (4). However, State Ministry of Production and Supply of Fertiliser and Regulation of Chemical Fertilisers and Insecticide Use Additional Secretary of Development Mohan Gammanpila told The Morning that the chemical fertiliser stocks remaining in the country would last roughly until mid-September. “There are 100,000 metric tonnes (MTs) of chemical fertiliser remaining, which is to be used for crops other than paddy. A total of 86,000 MTs of chemical fertiliser will also come to the country soon as a result of the contracts we signed prior to the ban. This would last till mid-September if only chemical fertiliser is used for the crops. However, if the farmers use this with other fertilisers, it could last the year. In 2019, for crops other than paddy, a total of 353,000 MTs were used,” said Gammanpila. Commenting on the remaining chemical fertiliser stocks for paddy, Gammanpila said that 44,801 MTs of chemical fertiliser are in storage to last the Yala Kannaya/season (May to August), while 30,000 MTs are yet to arrive from contracts that were signed prior to the ban. According to Gammanpila, in 2020, under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s policy vision “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour”, they were asked to plan to make the country completely free of chemical fertiliser by 2030. “Therefore, last year (2020), during both the Yala season and the Maha season, we did large scale trials on how to implement farming without the use of chemical fertiliser. On 25,000 hectares (ha) and 21,000 ha during the Yala season and Maha season, respectively, we experimented on crops by reducing the usage of chemical fertiliser by 30%, 50%, 70%, and even 100%. Our initial plan was to reduce the use of chemical fertiliser by 30% during this Maha season, by the end of the year. But the President issued directives last week and we have therefore expedited our plans. There are 800,000 ha for the Maha season this year and we are currently meeting with the producers of organic fertiliser to ensure that the crop cycle would be successful,” explained Gammanpila. Meanwhile, the Planters’ Association of Sri Lanka (PA) also raised concerns following the announcement of the ban. PA Spokesman Dr. Roshan Rajadurai told The Morning on 2 May that without chemical fertiliser, the harvest of the normal tea crop would drop to almost 50% within 12 months. Responding to these concerns yesterday, Ministry of Plantation Industries Media Spokesperson Samantha Gunasekara said that discussions were ongoing within the Ministry and that they would be prepared to ensure that production is not affected by the ban. Speaking to The Morning, however, Lanka Organic Agriculture Movement (LOAM) President Thilak Kariyawasam said that the Government’s hasty and inefficient implementation of the import ban would only create a wrong and bad impression about organic farming, as opposed to what it could really be. “This is not something that can be done overnight. When you do not have the required soil fertility, you cannot build it up overnight. It cannot be done in one season. It takes two to four seasons to achieve the required soil fertility and it is a process that takes time,” said Kariyawasam. According to Kariyawasam, the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) programme must be first encouraged among the farmers, before they gradually make the shift to organic farming. Commenting on the systematic changes that are needed for the implementation of large-scale organic farming, Kariyawasam said that trained agricultural officers are needed from the Department of Agriculture. “Especially at the time the shift takes place, farmers would have questions about the farming methods that are practiced with the use of organic fertilisers. However, as per our knowledge, the Department does not have many officers like this,” Kariyawasam said. Kariyawasam further said that 17 to 18 micro and macro nutrients are needed for the growth of a plant. From those, three (oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon) can be easily obtained from the natural environment. “Our soil is generally good, so we only needed to manually add about six nutrients. But recently, due to soil degradation, there has been a higher dependency on chemical fertiliser. When we discuss organic fertiliser, Sri Lanka mostly focuses on compost. However, there are many other types of fertiliser such as biofertiliser, which could be used, given the necessary technology,” said Kariyawasam. On 29 April, President Rajapaksa said that Sri Lanka would become the first country to take up the challenge of eliminating the use of chemical fertiliser, while adding that necessary steps would be taken to facilitate the production of organic fertiliser at district level. The Cabinet approved the proposal to ban all chemical fertilisers in Sri Lanka in the same week. The President’s Media Division had also noted that government spending on non-communicable diseases such as kidney diseases, the latter of which are reported to have arisen as a result of the use of chemical fertiliser, is increasing each year. It was reported on 2 May that the Government had turned away two shipments of chemical fertiliser from China last week. Furthermore, the issuance of Letters of Credit to import chemical fertiliser had also been suspended.


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