Sri Lanka reverses organic farming drive as tea suffers
3 years, 2 months ago

Sri Lanka reverses organic farming drive as tea suffers

Al Jazeera  

Government backs down from ambitious plans to become the world’s first completely organic farming nation, reversing ban on fertiliser imports. Sri Lanka has backed down from its ambitious plans to become the world’s first completely organic farming nation, reversing a ban on imports of chemical fertiliser. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had imposed a total ban on agrochemicals in May, saying he wanted to make Sri Lankan farming 100 percent organic. Rajapaksa’s policy had sparked anger among tea plantation owners and other farmers who warned that a lack of organic fertiliser and lower yields would lead to shortages.

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History of this topic

Sri Lanka imports 600,000 metric tonnes of substandard rice due to flawed chemical fertiliser ban: Minister
2 years, 3 months ago

Sri Lanka imports 600,000 metric tonnes of substandard rice due to flawed chemical fertiliser ban: Minister

India TV News  

Highlights Poisonous rice has been imported due to flawed decision of previous government Last year, Gotabaya Rajapaksa put a blanket ban on imports of chemical fertilizers Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948 Sri Lanka economic crisis : Lanka's Agricultural Minister Mahinda Amaraweera informed Parliament on Thursday that the cash-strapped country had to …

Sri Lanka faces ‘man-made’ food crisis as farmers stop planting
2 years, 7 months ago

Sri Lanka faces ‘man-made’ food crisis as farmers stop planting

Al Jazeera  

Once self-sufficient nation reels from fall-out of ill-conceived shift to organic agriculture, compounded by fuel shortages. “It’s a total loss,” the father of five said in mid-April, standing in a field of stunted banana trees in Sri Lanka’s southern Hambantota district. “There will be a very hard period in the coming few months in terms of the food aspect,” said …

Sri Lanka: People running out of food, fuel and medicine
2 years, 7 months ago

Sri Lanka: People running out of food, fuel and medicine

The Hindu  

"I have a 10-month-old baby. I couldn't even buy medicines for her when she was sick last week," said Gunarathna Vaani, who resides in the suburbs of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo. A dire economic crisis Many of Sri Lanka's 22 million people are facing acute shortages of food, fuel and medicine as the island nation finds itself battling one of …

How a powerful dynasty bankrupted Sri Lanka in 30 months
2 years, 7 months ago

How a powerful dynasty bankrupted Sri Lanka in 30 months

Al Jazeera  

Ahead of the November 2019 election, Sri Lankan presidential challenger Gotabaya Rajapaksa proposed sweeping tax cuts so reckless the incumbent government thought it must be a campaign gimmick. “The Rajapaksas are withdrawing, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to surrender,” said Jehan Perera, a newspaper columnist and the executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an independent …

How Environmental Wokeness Cost Sri Lanka Its Food Security
2 years, 8 months ago

How Environmental Wokeness Cost Sri Lanka Its Food Security

News 18  

In 2019, newly elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa unveiled his grand vision for Sri Lanka, “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour” within which he outlined a 10-year transition to fully organic farming in Sri Lanka. Although in public it was claimed that the ban was aimed at controlling healthcare costs due to the ill effects of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, …

How Sri Lanka Landed in a Crisis and What It Means
2 years, 8 months ago

How Sri Lanka Landed in a Crisis and What It Means

Bloomberg  

Months of protests in Sri Lanka over soaring inflation, shortages of food and fuel and lengthy power cuts have toppled the government in the South Asian nation and led to its first sovereign debt default since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. In late 2019, newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa carried out populist tax cuts, reducing revenues just months before …

Sri Lanka’s ‘organic only’ policy | Sowing the seeds of a disaster
3 years ago

Sri Lanka’s ‘organic only’ policy | Sowing the seeds of a disaster

The Hindu  

From the time he began voting, Kurunegala farmer B.M.H. Acknowledging there was “some criticism and resistance” to his government’s ‘organic only’ policy, he told the summit: “In addition to chemical fertilizer lobby groups, this resistance has come from farmers who have grown accustomed to overusing fertilizer as an easy means of increasing yields.” He did not mention Sri Lankan scientists, …

Sri Lanka heeds protests, lifts ban on agrochemical imports
3 years, 1 month ago

Sri Lanka heeds protests, lifts ban on agrochemical imports

Associated Press  

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s government has withdrawn a ban on imports of agrochemicals that it said was aimed at encouraging organic cultivation. But he said government subsidies, price guarantees for produce and technical support will only be provided to those who use organic fertilizer. The ban, which many analysts said was more an effort to preserve Sri Lanka’s …

Sri Lanka partially lifts ban on chemical fertilizers; allows private sector to import it
3 years, 1 month ago

Sri Lanka partially lifts ban on chemical fertilizers; allows private sector to import it

The Hindu  

The Sri Lankan government has decided to partially lift the ban on chemical fertilizers and permit the private sector to import it to allow the country’s farmers to purchase it from the open market, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said on Wednesday. Following last week’s confusion when the top agriculture bureaucrat Udith Jayasinghe implied that there would be a blanket lifting …

‘No change, it’s only green agriculture’
3 years, 1 month ago

‘No change, it’s only green agriculture’

The Hindu  

There is no change in Sri Lanka’s ‘green agriculture’ policy, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said on Monday, after senior officials in his government pointed to the contrary. However, following a “special discussion” Monday morning with subject ministers and district officials, President Rajapaksa “stressed that the country’s agriculture policy is only for a green agriculture that focuses on the sole use of …

Sri Lanka revokes ban on fertilizers
3 years, 1 month ago

Sri Lanka revokes ban on fertilizers

The Hindu  

Sri Lanka abandoned its quest to become the world’s first completely organic farming nation on Sunday, announcing it would immediately lift an import ban on pesticides and other agricultural inputs. But ahead of planned farmer protests in the capital, Sri Lanka’s Agricultural Ministry said it would end a broader ban on all agrochemicals, including herbicides and pesticides. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa …

Sri Lanka abandons drive to become world's first organic country amid spiralling food prices
3 years, 1 month ago

Sri Lanka abandons drive to become world's first organic country amid spiralling food prices

The Telegraph  

Sri Lanka has abandoned its attempt to become the world's first entirely organic farming nation amid spiralling food prices and weeks of protest. Speaking at the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow this month, president Gotabaya Rajapaksa defended the policy, saying only "entrenched lobbies" were against a move that would create "opportunities for investment in organic agriculture." But Colombo reversed …

Kilinochchi farmers dread first harvest after Sri Lanka’s fertilizer ban
3 years, 1 month ago

Kilinochchi farmers dread first harvest after Sri Lanka’s fertilizer ban

The Hindu  

For Muthu Sivamohan, a farmer leader in Sri Lanka’s northern Kilinochchi district, the uncertainty looming over his paddy yield, after the government banned chemical fertilizers, is only comparable to “two other periods of crisis”. Challenging the government’s claim that chemical fertilizers caused farmers’ kidney ailments, scientists have dubbed the current crisis “the most turbulent” period in Sri Lanka’s agricultural history. …

Amid fertilizer row, China blacklists Sri Lankan bank
3 years, 1 month ago

Amid fertilizer row, China blacklists Sri Lankan bank

The Hindu  

China has blacklisted a top state-owned bank in Sri Lanka, citing a “vicious” Letter of Credit “default” in relation to a recent order for organic fertilizer placed by Colombo with a Chinese company. Last week, Sri Lanka barred a Chinese ship carrying organic fertilizer, after the National Plant Quarantine Service tested samples and confirmed presence of “organisms, including certain types …

Sri Lanka receives first consignment of non-harmful Nano Nitrogen liquid fertiliser from India to boost paddy, maize cultivation
3 years, 2 months ago

Sri Lanka receives first consignment of non-harmful Nano Nitrogen liquid fertiliser from India to boost paddy, maize cultivation

The Hindu  

Sri Lanka has received the first consignment of 3.1 million litres high quality non-harmful Nano Nitrogen liquid fertiliser from India to help the island nation's Eastern province in the cultivation of maize and paddy, country's Agriculture Secretary Prof Udith Jayasinghe said on Wednesday. The import of Nano Nitrogen liquid fertiliser came months after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s decision in May to …

Sri Lanka eyeing green agriculture
3 years, 2 months ago

Sri Lanka eyeing green agriculture

The Hindu  

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a task force on ‘green agriculture’, his office said on Saturday, while Sri Lanka’s farmers continue protesting his government’s abrupt ‘organic fertilizer only’ policy shift since May this year. Describing the government’s fertilizer ban “a blunder” that threatens food production in the country, the soil scientist told The Hindu : “It is a contradiction because …

Organic food revolution in Sri Lanka threatens its tea industry
3 years, 3 months ago

Organic food revolution in Sri Lanka threatens its tea industry

Al Jazeera  

Island nation’s drive to become the world’s first 100 percent organic food producer threatens prized tea industry and triggers fears of crop disaster. Sri Lanka’s drive to become the world’s first 100 percent organic food producer threatens its prized tea industry and has triggered fears of a wider crop disaster that could deal a further blow to the beleaguered economy. …

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