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Fertiliser fiasco: Farmers face uncertain future as Maha season approaches
With the ‘Maha’ cultivation season less than a week away, farmers are facing an uncertain future, not knowing whether there will be fertiliser or not and, if fertiliser is available, whether it will be organic or chemical fertiliser that they will be using.
At Thiruvaiyaaru in Kilinochchi, 75-year-old farmer Subramanium Kanapathippilai, hailing from a farmer family, has been cultivating his land for more than 50 years. He sees the Government’s hasty decision to ban the import of chemical fertiliser as a big blow to the farmer community.
“I’m going to prepare my ten-acre land for cultivation tomorrow, but, to be honest, I don’t know how I am going to do that without chemical fertiliser for the first time in decades,” Mr Kanapathipillai said, adding that his land had acclimatised to chemical fertiliser.
Many farmers, like him, say the Government’s new fertiliser policy in favour of organic fertiliser has led to a sharp reduction in the Yala season paddy yield. Some claim the drop was as much as 50 percent when compared to the previous season’s harvest. The country’s potato farmers lament that their crops have dropped almost by half in comparison to their previous yields.
In Ampara, too, farmers say they have put on hold plans to prepare the field because of the fertiliser scarcity.
“I agree that the use of chemical fertiliser should be reduced due to health issues but the switch to organic fertiliser should be a gradual process, instead of a shock treatment to farmers,” Mr Kanapathippilai said while pointing out that since 1970s, successive governments had aggressively encouraged farmers on the use of chemical fertilisers.
He also said farmers had not been adequately informed about organic farming and its usage, with agrarian officers, who were tasked to carry out awareness programmes, offering little support. “We can’t blame them, as most of them lack the field experience or deeper understanding of organic farming to guide us.”
Agrarian officers are expected to assist farmers to conduct soil testing that will determine what kind of minerals should be added to organic fertiliser but the process has not got off the ground because neither the officers nor the farmers show a keen interest in it, farmers say.
Early this month, the Agriculture Ministry issued a circular to Agrarian Service Centres to produce at least 100 metric tonnes of organic fertiliser. Each centre was allocated Rs. 1 million for the project.
This came in the wake of another announcement from the Ministry that nitrogen and potassium requirements for organic farming had already been imported and would be distributed among farmers, provided they have made a down payment of Rs. 7,500.
Another farmer who complains of fertiliser-related harvest drop is Selvarajah Thayalan from Kopay, Jaffna. His main cultivation is upland crops such as green chillies, cabbages, carrots and small onions.
A Northern farmer preparing the field to cultivate paddy during the Maha season, though he is not sure whether there will be fertiliser to sustain the cultivation. Pic by N. Lohathayalan
“Usually, in plant more than 1,000 green chillie plants and get a harvest of at least 500kg but during the last season, I was able to harvest only around 200 kg. We cannot afford to farm chillies at this rate anymore since the cost is higher than the harvest,” Mr Thayalan, a father of three, told the Sunday Times.
As people’s purchasing power has also reduced due to skyrocketing prices, people buy less vegetable than they did before, Mr Thayalan noted while expressing concerns that the prices might go up even further.
North-based farmer federations took up the issue of fertiliser ban with the government authorities demanding that at least a minimum quantity of chemical fertiliser be distributed among them to ensure not only farmer welfare but also the country’s food security in the long run.
Iranaimadu Farmers’ Association president M. Sivamohan said farmers would not be able to manufacture adequate amount of organic fertiliser with the proposed state grant of Rs 25,000 per hectare. This is not only because there is an acute shortage of ingredients such as animal waste and the organic compost mixture but also because of heavy prices of these items. A tippler load of compost costs farmers between Rs 40,000 and Rs 60,000 in the Wanni region.
“Many farmers have brought to our notice their grievances as the Maha season approaches. Some of them have decided to cultivate less land. Farmers who till leased lands say they have decided to hand back the land as they feel there is hardly any return,” Mr Sivamohan said.
In addition to farmer federations, agrarian associations of export crops such as tea and rubber and industry experts expressed grave concern over the government’s ambitious fertiliser switch, warning that exports would be nearly halved if the ban on chemical fertiliser is not reversed soon.
The Planters Association of Ceylon (PA), which held its 167th annual general meeting on Thursday, predicted a 40 percent drop in tea exports next year. While stressing that the current fertiliser ban is not feasible, the PA also insisted that the switch to organic should be gradual.
Earlier, the Sri Lanka Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA) wrote to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pointing out that based on agronomic studies which predict a 35 percent production drop due to the fertiliser switch, the export volume of tea would go down from 279 million kg to 181 million kg, causing an income loss of Rs. 84 billion to the country.
The association also stressed that coconut yields would also go down by 30 percent if chemical fertilisers and pesticides were not applied, resulting in a loss of foreign exchange earnings of around Rs. 18 billion. This is based on the assumption that only 26 percent of the total coconut extent is fertilised.
The SAEA’s agronomic studies revealed that the average yields from paddy could drop by 25 percent if chemical fertilisers were fully replaced by organic fertilisers. The production loss could reduce the profitability of paddy farming by 33 percent and rice consumption by 27 percent.
As government remains steadfast on its decision not to relax the ban on chemical fertiliser imports, there was more bad news for farmers. On Wednesday, the Government decided to suspend the import of the controversial Chinese organic fertiliser after tests conducted on samples showed the presence of harmful microorganisms.
The authorities have informed the importer, Chelina Capital Corporation Pvt. Ltd., that the stock of fertiliser had failed to comply with the local requirements.
Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said the cancellation of the order came after laboratory reports on samples revealed that the nitrogen organic fertilizer contained harmful bacteria that could cause problems to the local soil.
Reiterating that the Government was focused on ensuring that there was no shortage of fertiliser during the upcoming Maha season, he said farmers would get quality organic fertiliser.
However, it is learnt that a stock of organic fertiliser from China’s Qingdao Seawin Biotech fertiliser company has left the Port of Qingdao and was heading for Colombo.