President Gotabaya Rajapaksa instructed the officials to take steps to provide needed fertilizer to farmers in time for the Yala Season.

The President made these remarks during a discussion held at the Presidential Secretariat today (3) with the Task Force on fertilizer.

Organic fertilizers are produced locally using various techniques. Therefore, the President emphasized the need to make farmers aware of using organic fertilizers and stressed the need to deploy officers of the Fertilizer Task Force for this purpose. Lack of proper awareness on the use of organic fertilizers has led to the harvest drop in some areas in the last season. This time the farmers should be properly made aware by the Agricultural Research Assistants to avoid these shortcomings. It has been reported that some officials are reluctant to participate in awareness programmes. The President instructed that the participation of all relevant persons in these programmes should be made compulsory.

For whatever reason, the farmer’s income cannot be allowed to decline. The confidence of the farming community in this regard should be strengthened. President Rajapaksa also said that the reluctance of farmers to switch to organic farming is a result of unsatisfactory experiences they received at various times.

The government has focused on providing the necessary financial assistance to local fertilizer producers. It is the responsibility of the companies concerned to improve their industry by providing high quality fertilizers on time. Billions of rupees spent to import chemical fertilizers over the years now goes to these industrialists and this has led to the creation of a new local industry. It also strengthens the local industrialists.

There have been reports of farmers not using high quality fertilizers due to misinformation. The entrepreneurs who produce organic fertilizer said that they are committed to the government’s policy of providing the people with a non-toxic diet.

Representatives of the fertilizer companies presented statistics on the successful yields of organic fertilizers produced by their companies and used during the last Maha Season. During the discussion, the officials pointed out that the farmers were discouraged as the media only highlighted the failures despite the many incidents of successes.

State Minister Shasheendra Rajapaksa said that the process of production and distribution of fertilizer has been successfully implemented with the establishment of committees comprising farmers, agricultural officers, fertilizer manufacturing companies, government officials and army personnel covering all 25 districts.

Secretary to the President Gamini Senarath and other Government Officials, Chief of Defence Staff Army Commander General Shavendra Silva and representatives of fertilizer companies were also present.