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Uva Paranagama paddy farmers face dilemma

26 Aug 2022

  • Issues with fertiliser, fuel, seeds, costs, and yields push them towards other types of farming
  BY Dinitha Rathnayake    Paddy farmers in Uva Paranagama have, owing to the fertiliser issue and the economic crisis, shifted to alternative farming solutions including farming vegetables and in other cases, farming only for private, household use, and not commercial sale. Speaking to The Morning, several paddy farmers said that they are not continuing paddy farming due to the economic and fertiliser crises. “Everything is about money now. We have to spend Rs. 30,000 to buy urea fertiliser and another Rs. 30,000 for harvesting. It is not possible for us. Normally, for 40 perches, we get around 50 bushels earlier, but now we only get 10 bushels, and all of this is due to the fertiliser issue.” According to farmers, they are shifting to other alternatives like vegetable farming due to this situation. However, it was also revealed that some farmers only continue to do farming for their household needs and not to sell. “We might have to face a food crisis in the coming months. Therefore, we have to be prepared for that. But due to the fertiliser and fuel crises and issues including those pertaining to seeds, we will limit our farming only for our needs.” Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera said that farmers are estimated to have sown a record 512,000 hectares of paddy in the Yala season spurred by rising rice prices and a food shortage. Sri Lanka was originally expecting only 275,000 hectares of rice to be cultivated despite the chemical fertiliser ban imposed by ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa being lifted as foreign exchange shortages blocked imports, he said. Sri Lanka usually sees about 400,000 hectares of rice cultivated in the Yala season yielding about 1.5 million tonnes of paddy and 800,000 hectares cultivated in the Maha season. If 500,000 hectares of rice were cultivated, over two million tonnes of paddy would be harvested, provided that fertiliser was given on time, which could in turn be milled into 1.36 million tonnes of rice, which stock is sufficient to feed the country for more than six months. However, farmers have said that fields cultivated with organic fertiliser produce about 30-40% less yield.


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