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80,000 farmers get aid to buy organic fertilizer
View(s):By Ravi Shankar
Around 80,000 farmers will be given financial assistance by the Government to promote organic farming, an official said.
Ashoka Abeygunawardena, head of the National Food Production Programme Unit at the Presidential Secretariat, said organic fertilizer had been produced from cow dung, fish waste and sugarcane waste and it was processed through a new technology so that a large harvest could be obtained with little fertilizer.
Earlier, farmers had complained that they required a huge quantity of organic fertilizer when compared to chemical fertilzer. But now with this new technology, this issue had been addressed, he said. Mr. Abeygunawardena said this technology was being successfully used in countries such as Japan and South Korea. He said farmers in several areas including Trincomalee, the Mahaweli zones and Walawe were being given financial assistance to buy organic fertilizer at prices less than what they paid for chemical fertilizer.
Last year, the Government announced that it was suspending the provision of chemical fertilizer at heavily subsidised rate and instead would give farmers financial assistance to buy or produce organic fertilizer. Mr Abeygunawardena said there would be no restriction on the import of chemical fertilizer. Instead both chemical and organic fertilizer would be made available and the farmers could make a choice though they would be educated on the need to reduce the use of agrochemicals, some of which were known to be toxic.
He said about 800 officers had been trained to educate farmers on the need to switch to organic fertilizer.
Agriculture experts have pointed out that using organic fertilizer, the farmers would be able to produce toxin-free food, and thus help build a wasa-visa-nethi country. In the second stage of this plan, Mr. Abeygunawardena said, the farmers would also be educated on the benefits of using organic pesticide instead of chemical varieties such as Glyphosate which had been banned.
He said that in terms of the three-year national food programme, there would be a gradual reduction in food import. Farmers would be encouraged to use modern technology while the marketing process would also be streamlined.