News
Small-scale Nuwara Eliya vege farmers abandon fields
Several small and medium-scale vegetable farmers are abandoning their fields in Nuwara Eliya and surrounding areas owing to high fertiliser prices and the current economic crisis.
A vegetable field that remains unattended due to small-scale farmers’ inability to buy fertiliser at a reasonable price
Some of these farmer families have tilled their land for generations. Their decision to abandon the fields goes against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s plea to people to grow food wherever they find land to face an imminent food crisis.
These farmers say that for the past three years they have undergone crisis after crisis. First, they were affected by the long lockdowns due to the Covid pandemic, then by the crisis over the Government’s decision to ban chemical fertiliser, and now the economic crisis. They say the harvest in the past three years had been poor and growing vegetables is no longer profitable.
Although the import ban on chemical fertiliser has been lifted, the farmers say they cannot afford to buy fertiliser at exorbitant prices.
A bag of urea which they bought for Rs. 1,500 two years ago costs between Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 40,000 today, depending on the variety. “We cannot afford the price. So we decided to look for other jobs,” one farmer said.
These farmers grow vegetables in 30-50 perch plots to supplement their meagre income. Some of them do not even receive Samurdhi relief.
“To get a good harvest, we need to apply fertiliser. In cooler climes, the fertiliser usage is more, but we cannot afford to buy it,” another farmer said. He added that the need to stay in long queues for kerosene and gas was also keeping farmers away from the fields.
The effect of the small-scale farmers’ withdrawal from the fields is seen in the reduction of vegetable supplies from Nuwara Eliya.
The Nuwara Eliya Economic Centre reports that upcountry vegetables and potatoes that come to the market are largely from commercial farms.
District Secretary Nanda Galabada said it was true that small-scale farmers were withdrawing from agriculture, but the secretariat was addressing the issue and taking measures to dissuade them from doing so.
He said he had discussed the problem with the new Agriculture Ministry Secretary and Treasury officials and was confident a solution would be found soon.
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