brand logo

Indian urea distribution from today with GPS tracking 

12 Jul 2022

  • Agrarian Service Centres to receive stocks via 800 trucks 
  • Farmers to buy 50 kg sack for Rs. 10,000 
BY Safrah Fazal The distribution of the stock of urea fertiliser manufactured in Oman and provided by the Government of India is said to commence today (12) to Agrarian Service Centres islandwide while the lorries employed for the transportation are to be tracked through global positioning system (GPS) technology in order to prevent any thefts that could take place en route. Speaking to The Morning yesterday (11), an Agriculture Ministry official said: “Each 50 kilogram (kg) sack of fertiliser is to be sold to farmers at Rs. 10,000. As the value of one lorry transporting urea fertiliser is worth millions of rupees, all 800 lorries will be supervised by a Ministry official and they will contain a GPS tracker. We will monitor the lorries from the Ceylon Fertilizer Company Limited to the respective Agrarian Service Centres. Even if an official goes rogue, we will know.” With regard to the quality of the urea fertiliser that was imported, the official stated that the percentage of biurate (chemical substance), which Sri Lanka usually maintains at 1% due to the local soil conditions, has been tested by three international laboratories and revealed to be below 1%.  “India usually maintains its biurate level at 1.5%. But, the three reports show that the biurate level of the imported Indian fertiliser – which is manufactured in Oman – is at approximately 0.63%, which is suitable for our soil. We will also be obtaining a standard certificate locally.” Meanwhile, a media release from the Ministry stated that Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera, will fully supervise and ensure that the task of distributing the urea fertiliser is done properly and look into whether the fertiliser is being given correctly and regularly to the farmers. Last month, Amaraweera had instructed the relevant officials to issue urea fertiliser that is to be received from India, to all farmers who have cultivated paddy on the instructions of the Department of Agriculture, even if their cultivations have been harvested. Speaking to the relevant officials, he said: “The Department instructed farmers to cultivate paddy during the Yala cultivation season. Therefore, it is our responsibility to provide assistance to them. Hence, if the farmers need urea fertiliser even if their cultivations have been harvested, they should be given urea fertiliser so that they can use them for certain other cultivations.” Amaraweera had also instructed the officials to take steps to provide 100 kg of urea fertiliser per hectare (ha), through the Agrarian Service Centres islandwide. The fertiliser would be distributed to the Centres through the Colombo Commercial Fertilisers Ltd. Company and the Ceylon Fertiliser Company Ltd. In order to avoid issues that may arise due to the prevailing fuel shortage in the country, the Ministry also stated that Agricultural Research and Production Assistant officers would be transferred to their native villages if they are currently employed in other areas.


More News..