Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that a number of measures need to be taken to supply quality organic fertilizer during this year’s Maha Season.

Minister Amaraweera called on organic fertilizer manufacturing companies for a discussion regarding the supply of organic fertilizer for paddy cultivation.

The Agriculture Department recommends that 30 percent of organic fertilizer and 70 percent chemical fertilizer be used for paddy cultivation this crop season.

Accordingly, the amount of organic fertilizer required for paddy cultivation this season is 150,000 metric tonnes. But at present, the amount of fertilizer available at organic fertilizer production companies is 80,000 metric tonnes.

The following decisions were taken at this discussion:

l Ten companies have been granted approval by the Fertilizer Secretariat for issuing organic fertilizer. Other companies should also speed up obtaining quality certificates from the National Fertilizer Secretariat for their products.

l Appointment of Committees chaired by the District Secretary in each district to ensure the quality of organic fertilizer should also include farmer representatives.

l The National Fertilizer Secretariat should test three samples of each type of organic fertilizer while distributing the fertilizer through the Agrarian Services Centres.

l It was decided that if any company’s organic fertilizer is found to be of inferior quality, that company will be blacklisted and no money will be paid for them.

l The respective production companies should be responsible for distributing the organic fertilizer stocks to the relevant agricultural service centres as well as promoting it among the farmers.

l If they need organic fertilizer, the responsibility of choosing the required quantities is transferred to the farmers.

l The Government provides a 50 percent subsidy or at least Rs.20,000 to farmers to buy organic fertilizer. Minister Amaraweera said that farmers are not very keen to indulge in organic farming.

Organic farming is not a farming method to be rejected. But during the 2021 Maha Season of 2021, due to the supply of inferior quality organic fertilizer to farmers under the label of black soil dug up from lakes, soil blackened by burning tires and even glass shells, farmers’ lost confidence in using organic fertilizer.

Therefore, the Minister also emphasised that if waste is supplied under the guise of organic fertilizer during this season, farmers will lose confidence in organic farming which would make it difficult to popularize it among the farmer community.