After the Second World War, there was a wrong notion amongst farmers in Third World countries like Sri Lanka that extensive use of chemical fertilizer was the way forward towards high yields which are rich in quality.

But developments across the world in the following decades have proved that this belief has no basis. It is proved that replacing chemical fertilizer with bio-fertilizer has far reaching consequences such as reducing environmental pollution, more cost benefits and increased yields and high quality produce.
Though Sri Lanka is the 73rd country in the world to begin the use of bio-fertilizer, countries like US, China, Cuba, India, the Philippines and many other countries have started the use of bio-fertilizer long before. The United States started it as far back as 1901. In certain provinces in China the use of bio-fertilizer is mandatory.

Gary Seaton, an Australian who himself is a planter and an investor, joined Sri Lanka’s Pussellawa Plantations as an investor and became a Director in 1996. He also has invested in the Prima Group. Seaton is the Chairman, Oceanic Group of Companies based in Singapore and also have diversified interests in various countries.

At the Pussellawa Plantations he realised the tremendous advantages for the Sri Lankan tea industry and other crops if bio-fertilizer was promoted. In 1998 he brought down Dr Lakshmi Prasad, a microbiologist and Consultant-Director of extension, Ministry of Agriculture in India and the latter took some soil samples from Avissawella for testing.

Dr Prasad was able to identify important bacteria in the sample soil. He first set up a small laboratory in Horton place and identified useful bacteria like Nitrogen fixing bacteria and phosphorous solubalized bacteria and these are now used in the formation of bio-fertilizer. He said when chemical fertilizer is applied it gives nutrients in high concentration and when it is applied continuously, micro-organisms in the soil tend to get destroyed.

Dr Prasad said that they are involved in efforts to create plants that by themselves are able to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere – that is, convert nitrogen gas into nitrates that can be used by the plant’s metabolic machinery. At present, only certain plants called legumes are naturally able to do so, and even legumes require the aid of symbiotic bacteria. Such a development would drastically curtail the amount of fertilizer required by agricultural crops.

Once the tests were completed and found to be successful a plant to produce bio-fertilizers was set up in Meepe, Avissawella and for this purpose a company by the name of Sri Bio-Tech Lanka (Pvt) Ltd was formed in 2002 with an investment of Rs 55 million. Though the factory was installed, laboratory experiments, trials and tests had to be carried out until 2004, to perfect the end product that would ideally suit the different conditions of the soil.

Actual production began in 2005. Mr Seaton wanted the bio-fertilizer applied in the tea plantations of the Pussellawa Plantation at first and to other plantations. Now the bio-fertilizer is used by tea small-holders, vegetable farmers in Nuwara Eliya and the sugar cane industry in Pelwatte.

To find out how the whole operation of bio-fertilizer production is carried out, The Sunday Times FT recently visited the company laboratory and plant at Avissawella. S. L. P. Vithanage, General Manager, helped by Indika Maheepala, Business Development Manager, explained that the factory could produce around 150 tons of bio-fertilizer per year and that if the demand increases they could go up to 300 metric tons.

At the rate of 212 kg per application of chemical fertilizer, four applications per year per hectare of tea are essential. At the rate of Rs 90 per kg the cost per application would be Rs 19,080 and the labour cost per application is Rs 285.

Per application the total cost would be Rs 20,220 The cost of four applications then per year would be Rs 80,880. In the case of bio-fertilizer only 10 kg per annum per hectare for tea is applied and at the rate of Rs 250 per kilo the cost is computed at Rs 2,500 and the labour cost is Rs 570. In addition to bio-fertilizer Rs 3,000 worth compost fertilizer has to be applied and then the total cost per hectare works out to Rs 12,140.

Mr Vithanage said that when bio-fertilizer is applied, in the first few years it has to be combined with chemical fertilizer. In the first year only 15 percent of chemical fertilizer could be reduced and the second year it would be 20 percent. In cultivations where chemical fertilizer has been used continuously for a long time total elimination of chemical fertilizer is not possible.

He said that up to a maximum of 50 percent could be reduced and the expenditure has to be calculated accordingly. Mr Vithanage said that in Sri Lanka bio-fertilizer is a new experience altogether and it would be difficult to convince the cultivators to go for total elimination of chemical fertilizer.

Mr Seaton told reporters at a press conference that the final goal of Sri Bio-Tech is to create awareness and enhance an environmentally friendly revolution in Sri Lankan agriculture. He said that once a firm foundation has been established in Sri Lanka, they intend to export their products to other countries in South East Asia, such as Malaysia and Indonesia.