Glyphosate ban worsens farmer woes

Sri Lanka agriculture sector, tea industry and paddy farmers are facing tremendous financial hardships due to the ban of Glyphosate, a widely-used weedicide in over 118 counties worldwide for over a period of 40 years.

CropLife Sri Lanka, with a membership consisting of 30 companies, representing the crop protection industry in the country is part of a global initiative to ensure sustainability of agriculture says that due to the ban income of farmers have decreased as there is no alternative.

The government banned Glyphosate without doing a proper study and irony is that it’s being used in Europe, USA, Australia New Zealand and in over 118 countries. “While many have tried to paint glyphosate as a danger to consumers, in reality glyphosate is one of the safest and most effective herbicides ever developed,’ Senarath Kiriwaththuduwage, CropLife Sri Lanka Spokesperson said.

“It revolutionise farming through effective control of weeds, and compared to many other commonly used pesticides and herbicides. It also has a substantial role in mitigating soil erosion by minimizing the need for land preparation. Additionally, glyphosate is also used intensively in plantation crops especially for tea plantations and is still considered one of the safest available herbicides.”

“We agree that pesticides needs to be regulated to ensure people and the environment are protected - but decisions must be based on the real risks so that our farmers are not needlessly stopped from using appropriate products to protect their crops,” Kiriwaththuduwage added.

Major global regulatory bodies having thoroughly studied glyphosate through exhaustive reviews of all available scientific data and concluded that it was unlikely to cause a health risk to humans or to the environment, and has no relation to Chronic Kidney Disease (CDK) afflicting Sri Lankans.

Saman Premalal Secretary, CropLife said that with the ban, the local maize growing area has reduced drastically from 120, 000 hectares s to 40,000 resulting in huge imports.

“It gave the farmers a good alternative income between two major seasons since maize could be cultivated in just three months by spraying glycoside and little amount of fertilizer with maize seeds generating around Rs. 90, 000 income by selling it to poultry food manufactures. But this source of income has now dried up. This is also the case with tea, paddy and onions and other crops.”

CropLife Sri Lanka is a member of CropLife Asia, one of six regional associations of CropLife International, a network of regional and national associations in 91 countries.