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Farmers ‘clueless’ about artificial chemical fertiliser
Most farmers are frustrated to the extent that they did not want to engage in large-scale farming
A mid widespread protests by angry farmers demanding fertiliser by burning the effigy of the Minister of Agriculture and parading mock coffins signifying the death of rice farming, two Indian Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster aircraft landed in the early hours of Thursday at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) with 100,000 kilos of nano nitrogen fertiliser.
This was essentially to support Sri Lanka’s initiative towards organic farming and to expedite availability of nano nitrogen fertiliser to Sri Lankan farmers, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said in a statement, while noting that the chief of staff of the Sri Lanka Air Force thanked the IAF for their prompt response and continued support in essential matters.
For many farmers who began the Maha growing season early October, fertiliser had not been provided well in advance.
On Friday, the Department of Agrarian Development began distributing the imported fertiliser to farmers through 562 agri development centres.
Nano nitrogen fertiliser arriving at the BIA. Pic by T.K.G. Kapila
Earlier, another 145,152 litres of nano nitrogen liquid fertiliser brought from Ahmedabad will be distributed to farmers for free, the Commissioner General of Agrarian Development A.H.M.L. Abeyrathne said.
Farmer unions say it will be a challenge to educate growers on the use of synthetic organic fertiliser.
Muththu Sivamohan, the secretary to Iranamadu Farmers Federation in Kilinochchi, told the Sunday Times, that farmers are clueless and noted even the agrarian officers at regional offices are not well informed.
“Most farmers are frustrated to the extent that they did not want to engage in large-scale farming as they used to. Many returned their leased paddy lands since they cant afford expenses,” Sivamohan said.
A significant drop in seed sales in regional centres also indicates many farmers, particularly vegetable growers, are abandoning their work, or scaling down due to shortages of fertilisers and pesticides.
Senior Prof. Udith K. Jayasinghe, the secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, told the Sunday Times that the farmers need to adopt new organic farming methods as the country is going through a ‘transformative’ period from a badly regulated chemical fertiliser driven agriculture at the expense of the soil to environment friendly farming practices.
“It’s understandable they got used to heavy use of chemical fertiliser for the last three decades. Their mindset needs to be changed considering the future of our country’s agriculture,” Jayasinghe said. He further stressed that farmers do not have to worry about lower crop yields since the government has pledged to compensate for their losses.
Meanwhile, Nuwara Eliya vegetable farmers have also suffered a double blow with lack of chemical fertiliser and insecticides, and recent adverse weather.
One of the many farmer protests across the country
As a result, prices of vegetables have shot up drastically over the past week.
A kilo of leeks is selling at Rs 180, while carrot is priced at Rs 170. Potatoes cost Rs 155 a kilo and beetroot is Rs 85. Radish costs Rs 80. Prices in markets in Colombo have risen.
Farmers noted a reduced harvest because of a lack of fertiliser and insecticides over the past few months.
Hotels in the area expecting a revival of tourism do not have enough vegetable supplies.
District Secretary Nandana Galabada, said that discussions have begun to provide fertiliser for those using green houses.
(Additional reporting by Shelton Hettiaarachchi)
| Academics question efficacy of Indian artificial agro chemical A group of leading academics of the Agriculture and Technology Faculties of state universities said this week that liquid nano nitrogen fertiliser from the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) imported by the government is a synthetic chemical fertiliser, and not organic. Issuing a collective statement through the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA), the academics said nano-nitrogen fertiliser from IFFCO, is a urea-based formulation where urea is coated with polymers to make nano-size particles. Therefore, the fertiliser is a synthetic chemical fertiliser, and not organic. “The nano-nitrogen fertiliser is recommended to apply as a foliar spray and said to contain 4% nitrogen. This is rather a new product, which has very recently (2021, March) received approval for large scale production from the Ministry of Agriculture of India. Anyhow, nano-fertilisers are not accepted in organic agriculture in Sri Lanka as indicated in the standard of requirements for organic agriculture (SLS1324:2018),” the statement said. From an initial order of 3.1 million litres, 45,000 litres (90,000 bottles of 500ml each) were airlifted on October 19 to Sri Lanka and another 100,000 litres came on Thursday. Pointing to media briefings by the Ministry of Agriculture where it was announced that three applications of 2.5 litres of the fertiliser at a time (i.e. 7.5 litres in total) is adequate to provide required nutrients for a hectare of paddy, the academics argued that when applied at this rate, nano-nitrogen fertiliser would provide only 300g of nitrogen per hectare and nearly 105kg of nitrogen is taken up by the paddy crop yielding 4-5 tons of grains a hectare. “Accordingly, nano-nitrogen fertiliser should be applied at a rate of 1,250 litres per hectare if it is the only source of nitrogen added to the crop, which is an impossible task to be realised within a cropping season,” they said. “In their official website, IFFCO has indicated that this nano-nitrogen fertiliser should be applied only as a top dressing along with a reduced rate of urea, while phosphorus and potassium sources are to be supplied at full rate according to recommendations. All research reports on this liquid fertiliser have recommended using this fertiliser to fulfil only partial requirements of nitrogen for crops and often used with 50% recommended dose of urea. Therefore, nano-nitrogen is more appropriate to be viewed as a supplementary source of nitrogen than a major nutrient source. “Spraying liquid fertiliser may not be practical for some crops unless the farmers have access to drone technology. This is because spraying large areas and taller crops such as maize and sugarcane is not practical with commonly used spray tanks. Moreover, the effectiveness of these foliar fertilisers depends on the ground-cover by leaf area, weather conditions and application technology. Therefore, it is a necessity to provide clear guidance to the farmers on correct application procedures.” “In this context there is a serious question as to what should be recommended to the farmers in Sri Lanka, as the sources of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, nutrients are limited in the market with the recent ban imposed on importing synthetic ‘chemical’ fertiliser.” The university academics also noted that Sri Lanka has not developed SLS standards for nano-fertilisers, yet. “These standards should be developed to assure quality of the product free of biurate-like toxic substances. Besides, recommendations should not be made in an ad-hoc manner without conducting any field investigations,” they cautioned. | |