The banning of the import and use of chemical fertiliser at the same time was mistakenly made, revealed Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture Udith K. Jayasinghe, justifying that this had happened due to the wrong instructions given in this regard.
He added that neither the President nor the Agriculture Minister is responsible for the decision.
The Ministerial Secretary went on justifying that the persons advising the Minister and the government regarding agriculture should have given instructions in a manner by which the farming community is systematically discouraged to use chemical fertiliser thereby driving them to adapt organic farming, instead of banning chemical fertiliser via gazette declarations.
Had the gazettes been issued on permitting the import and the use of environmentally friendly plant nutrients, the situation in the country would have gotten much better, Jayasinghe emphasised.
The Agriculture Secretary further stated that the President’s Vision for Prosperity promised the systematic reduction of the use of chemical fertiliser in the objective of introducing high quality plant nutrients to a culture that caters to agrochemicals. As a person who contributed to formulating the manifesto, Jayasinghe said that he is very well aware of the President’s intent.
The intent, however, has wrongly been communicated to the society due to the inaccurate advice of the advisors, the Secretary went on, adding that the President has held discussions on the current situation with the ministers, researchers and administrators and that the crisis will be resolved.
Jayasinghe also pointed out that an account of high quality bio fertiliser should be adapted instead of toxic fertiliser.
LNW
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