Only Agro-Chemicals for vegetable cultivation: Aluthgamage

Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told Parliament today that only the decision to import agrochemicals for vegetables has been taken at a meeting presided over by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

He insisted that no decision has been taken to import fertiliser for paddy cultivation.

His statement to Parliament came hours after the President met with stakeholders in the Agricultural sector including senior officials of the Agricultural sector.

After the meeting, the President’s Media Division issued a statement regarding the meeting but failed to explain about the decisions they had taken except to say that the President had emphasized that their policies on converting to organic fertiliser cultivation remain the same.

The President had said that any subsidiaries will be provided only for the use of organic fertiliser.

Meanwhile, officials who attended the meeting had said that President had told officials to decide on the import of agrochemicals required for vegetables.

The meeting took place after contradictory statements were made by officials and politicians about the reversal of the decision.

The Secretary of the Agriculture Ministry Prof Udith Jayasinghe on Sunday strongly defended the use of Urea implying that Urea too will be allowed while Minister Aluthgamage said no decision had been taken.

However,  Vegetable cultivators have pointed out that they cannot continue without pesticides and fungicides due to adverse weather conditions.

The damages to the crop have resulted in prices increases of vegetables.