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Government to airlift organic fertiliser: Consignment from India this week

09 Oct 2021

  • Priority batch earmarked for corn cultivation
By Skandha Gunasekara A consignment of organic fertiliser from India is to arrive in Sri Lanka within the coming week, The Sunday Morning learnt. Minister of Agriculture Mahindananda Aluthgamage told The Sunday Morning that he expected to place the order within the next two days, following the results of a final test. “I’m waiting on the isotopic test results which I will receive on Sunday (today). As soon as the results are in and positive, I will place the order. We will airfreight the first batch of the consignment,” he said. He said that initially, around 10,000 metric tonnes (MT) of fertiliser would be brought down and the entire process, from the time the order is placed, wouldn’t take more than a few days. “One or two days would go by for the arrangements to be made by the Indians, and another day, at the most, would be taken to send it by airfreight,” he noted. He said the first lot of organic fertiliser would be for corn cultivation, which had already commenced, and that the remainder would be brought in time for the Maha season. “Corn cultivation had already begun in Anuradhapura, Ampara, and Monaragala. There are around 100,000 acres of cultivation land to fertilise, which would require roughly 10,000 MT of fertiliser. This will be transported by air, as it is needed urgently,” he said, adding that a total stock of 600,000 MT of fertiliser would be imported in total from India.  


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