Agri Min okays 70/40 chemical and organic fertiliser mix for Maha season

By Ifham Nizam

The recommendation to use fertilisers in the ratio of 70 percent chemical and 30 percent organic in paddy cultivation will be implemented in the next Maha Season, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said on Friday.The decision was taken while Ministry officials went through comments and suggestions sought from agricultural experts regarding the use of chemical and organic fertilisers in the integrated plant nutrition management.

In this discussion, which was chaired by Minister Amaraweera, several University Agriculture scientists joined the discussion through the Zoom application. Professor Buddhi Marambe, Professor Varshi Dandeniya, Professor Saman Dharmakirthi, Dr. Upul Ratnayake, Secretary to the Ministry Rohana Pushpakumara, Director General of the Department of Agriculture Dr. Ajantha de Silva and a group of officials participated in it.

Minister Amaraweera said that as pointed out by the scholars who expressed their opinions there, the use of chemical fertiliser as well as organic fertiliser should be done in a certain proportion, and it was emphasized that a successful harvest can be achieved with such a wise measure.Experts thanked minister for taking steps to canvass their expertise for the first time, saying that no expert opinion has been sought regarding the use of fertilizers in a crop season before.

According to the discussion, all the scholars agreed to the recommendation of 70 percent minimum use of chemical fertilizers and 30 percent use of organic fertilizers in the 2022/23 Maha season.Also, the government intervenes in the provision of chemical fertilisers and steps are also being taken to give farmers the opportunity to choose organic fertiliser according to their wishes.

The Minister also mentioned that if organic fertilisers are applied by the farmers, steps will be taken to provide them a subsidy.It was also decided to submit a Cabinet Paper to get the approval of the Cabinet for this decision.