Fertiliser issue: Missing the wood for the trees!

By I. P. C. MENDIS

Blinkers and lop-sided decisions complement each other. Results can often be scary or dangerous, if not, disastrous. There is general agreement that organic food is definitely good for one’s health. However, Production is comparatively costly, and so are the marketed rates. However, the state in its wisdom, seems to argue that it is beneficial and cost-effective (to state coffers) in terms of the expenditure incurred on patients with various ailments, arising out of consumption of food items grown using chemical fertiliser, and the in-take of water suspected to be affected by the resultant seepage.

True! But what of the situation where there is no corresponding increase in incomes to meet the prices of organic food items? The whole exercise can turn counter-productive in that situation, and the country did not have to wait that long to find it out – as the project appears to have boomeranged; with the ten-year programme envisaged in the Presidential manifesto having been hastily compacted into one year bereft of initial planning, and the ground-work and in-puts in place so essential to achieve a modicum of success, if not the full. The usual “tricks of the trade” are suspected to be in place, where either by omission or design the government is tied up in knots, with the vessel with Chinese fertiliser still hovering about our shores ominously. The Chinese, said to be our dear friends, are not taking “No” for an answer, of course making a clear distinction between diplomatic relations and commercial activity.

The Nano stuff (said to be not adequately tested elsewhere) was rushed into the scene of the drama in the most unfavourable season of torrential rains, where the spraying would have had “nil” effect. Indian experts have chipped in to display their marketing skills, and to possibly counter the opposing views regarding the urea/ nitrogen content. While the melodrama continues, the country is well into the “Maha” season, with farmers who should be in the fields being on the streets, with their anger diffused on effigies, more than adequately powered by Opposition forces. The Chinese are in the meantime having “diplomatic” sweet talks with the Mahanayakes.

Half-Baked Ideas

Most of the time and most unfortunately, the government has been found to be lacking in examining issues holistically, and getting into hot water. The end does not seem to justify the means as the Chinese with its ideology believe. The country, over the past few decades, was practically indoctrinated with the idea that kidney disease is rampant, particularly in the NWP due to contaminated water, and President Sirisena was honoured by the Chinese with a gift of a well-equipped hospital in Polonnaruwa. He now complains that some key sections are non-functional and specialist doctors are not in place. This is indeed not on all fours with the keen concern to go organic (ten-years reduced to one) to meet the disease “eye to eye”.

The Broiler Issue

Nor has the huge in-take of broiler chicken been studied and examined in-depth, in order to establish whether or not such meat has any harmful effect on consumers, particularly children. It is well-known that most breeders tend to employ various methods to fatten chicks in the shortest possible recommended periods to be fit for slaughter. Hormone treatment, use of estrogens and certain other methods, are said to be often used (no offence meant to those who use only conventional but probably uncompetitive methods). Whether such methods do result in ill-effects have to be probed forthwith, and action taken to wean the public away from such harmful meat. (Yes, indeed, another blow if it comes). The government should not go with blinkers or take lop-sided decisions.