Tea Research Institute to promote organic fertiliser

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The Tea Research Institute (TRI) is looking at alternative measures to overcome the situation that has arisen due to the rising cost of fertiliser.

Chairman TRI, Dr. Gerry Jayawardena said arangements have been made to encourage tea cultivators to use organic fertiliser and to promote maximum residual levels.

The continuous incr-ease of fertiliser prices has put the tea industry in a dilemma and the industrialists fear that the country will lose in billions of foreign exchange in the future due to poor yield as the tea cultivators are not using the recommended quantity and quality of fertiliser to tea plants.

Sri Lanka exports 300 million kg of tea every year but industrialists doubt whether they would be able to produce sufficient tea in the event of the yield going down due to poor fertilising.

The Government provides a fertiliser subsidy to tea smallholders who own less than one-acre of tea but a large number of tea smallholders owning less than five acres are not eligible to get the subsidy. They will be the most affected category as a result of this situation.

Meanwhile, a Parliamentary Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday to discuss issues related to the tea industry to educate Cabinet Ministers and MPs.