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Maha ‘organic’ farmers yet to be compensated 

24 Jun 2022

  • Agri Ministry says supplementary estimate needed first
BY Buddhika Samaraweera The Ministry of Agriculture has stated that farmers who lost their crops due to the use of organic fertiliser during the Maha cultivating season will not be able to be paid compensation until a supplementary estimate is presented to the Parliament in the future, as no financial provision has been made in the last Budget to pay compensation for them. When contacted by The Morning, a Ministry official said: “No financial allocation has been made in the Budget presented by former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa to pay compensation to the farmers whose crops have been damaged during the Maha season. Therefore, it is not possible to pay compensation to them at this time.” However, noting that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has stated that a supplementary estimate would be presented to Parliament in the future, given the current situation, he said that Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has requested Cabinet to allocate the necessary funds to pay the compensation, through the said supplementary estimate. “Although it is difficult to obtain the required funds in this situation, the necessary steps will be taken to pay the relevant compensation considering the difficulties faced by the farmers. Former Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has also submitted a Cabinet memorandum seeking Rs. 15 billion to compensate the farmers whose crops were damaged due to the lack of chemical fertiliser and the use of organic fertiliser instead.” Following the Government’s decision to ban the use of chemical fertilisers and agrochemicals, farmers in several areas were charging that there is a serious shortage of fertiliser for their cultivations and a number of protests have been organised by farmers’ organisations and various parties demanding that the Government provide a solution to the fertiliser shortage. In addition, several protests were organised by farmers in the recent past stating that their crop damages, particularly those caused to paddy cultivation due to the fertiliser issue, be compensated. Amidst these protests, the Government, in March, decided to pay an incentive of Rs. 50,000 per hectare (ha) of paddy for farmers whose paddy harvest has been reduced due to the Government’s programme towards establishing a strictly green agriculture. Aluthgamage said at the time that a total of 1.1 million farmers who had cultivated nearly 800,000 ha of paddy during the last Maha cultivating season would be benefited through this programme. He also said that the relevant payments would be made within March itself. The Cabinet had previously granted approval to prepare an appropriate scheme of compensation in consultation with the general Treasury to pay a compensation of Rs. 25 per kilo of paddy in order to secure the income level of farmers affected due to the paddy harvest decline during the Maha season. Accordingly, the Department of Government Information stated that a methodology has been prepared to pay the compensation that is calculated based on the relevant criteria as an evaluation incentive, limited to the extent of the agricultural area of five acres as the maximum.


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