Farmers in the Anuradhapura District have cultivated nearly 45,000 hectares of paddy in the Yala season although it was initially planned to cultivate paddy in 91,500 hectares, mainly due to the shortage of fertilizer and agro chemicals.
A majority of farmers have almost abandoned this season due to this reason.
The farmers demand for urea at the initial stage. Meanwhile, the Irrigation Department has opened the canals of the major tanks. The farmer organizations have shown their utter displeasure to the Anuradhapura Government Agent, the Zonal Irrigation Director and
those responsible for releasing the water.
According to the district agrarian development authorities, only 8,500 metric tonnes of organic fertilizer have been provided by the fertilizer companies whereas the estimated quantity of fertilizer for the Anuradhapura District has been 45,000 metric tonnes.
A spokesman of the District Agrarian Development Department told the Daily News that they were waiting to get the balance stocks of the organic fertilizer approved for the district and also the district quota of urea of which 65,000 metric tonnes were to be supplied by the Indian Government via the Indian Credit Line.
“The Agriculture Director General has instructed us to furnish the details of the farmers who have actually taken Yala paddy cultivation in the district to provide urea for them on priority basis. One bag of urea
containing 50 kilograms will be sold to the farmers at Rs. 10,000
although the same stuff was marketed at Rs. 1,500 per bag under
the fertilizer subsidy programme. The urea is provided as a harvest booster. “We have instructed the Agriculture Production and Research Assistants at the Department to submit correct statistics of those who have started Yala cultivation.
A Senior Officer of the National Fertilizer Secretariat attached to the Anuradhapura District Secretariat told the Daily News that the Standardized Organic Fertilizer Manufacturing Programme in the district was very unsatisfactory and on the other hand, a majority of the farmers were very reluctant to use the same in fear of what happened in the last two cultivation seasons.
He said there were complaints about the very poor quality of the organic fertilizer and at inspections and testings in Rajangane. He revealed that the proposed programme to distribute nearly 35,000 MT carbonic fertilizer remained unused during the 2021/22 Maha Season after value addition has also been a failure.
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