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Destitute farmers on the verge of selling land
Small-scale farmers in Nuwara Eliya became the worst hit due to the sudden ban of chemical fertilisers – many expressed concern about the sustainability of continuing farming in the future. Farmers in doubt about continuing their farming activities tend to sell their lands to large-scale companies.
Petition being signed
With the pandemic making things worse, an increased cost of living, and poor marketing facilities for cultivated vegetables, farmers lament that the move taken by the government to switch from chemical fertiliser to organic is not practical with the current situation prevailing in the country.
Kumara Senanayake, Chairman of the Multi-Services Co-operative Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Livelihoods, stated that farmers have become helpless without chemical fertilisers. He pointed out that there were technologies to reduce the use of chemical fertiliser while managing the risk of falling yields.
Mr Senanayake added, “As a co-operative society, we have 2,500 farmers in the Nuwara Eliya District, and they are complaining that they are unable to engage in farming as a livelihood due to the sudden cessation of chemical fertilisers,” he said.
One Bundle of Chemical Fertiliser will be provided to five farmers in each Grama Niladhari Division through the Agricultural Research Production Assistant, but there are about 300-400 farmers in one Grama Niladhari Division. Issues among farmers have already arisen as it’s not sufficient for all the farmers.
Farmers federations are of the view that programmes should be initiated systematically to direct the farmer to organic fertilisers gradually. However, instead of giving a bundle of chemical fertilisers from Agrarian Service Centres, steps would be taken to provide farmers to purchase chemical fertilisers from the market.
Dr Jayantha Gawarammana, Director of Agricultural Livelihood Promotion Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited said that when using organic fertiliser instead of chemical fertiliser, the farmer has to spend three times more than chemical fertiliser. “Thus the yield can reduce by 30- 40 percent.”
“At the same time, the farmer should be introduced to using bio-fertilisers instead of organic compost as an alternative to chemical fertilisers. The farmer should be encouraged to introduce microbial technology, and also to use biofilm fertiliser as a remedy for the problem,” Dr Gawarammana noted.