Chemical fertilizer ships turned away

Two shipments from China carrying 18,000 Mt of chemical fertilizer for paddy and other crops have been turned away as the government s implementing the chemical fertilizer ban.

 

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that farmers must move to organic fertilizer immediately and no future letters of credit will be open. Meanwhile, farmers organizations and agro-based companies are protesting against the move calling it haphazard.

 

According to the Agriculture Ministry’s National Fertiliser Secretariat the total requirement was 1.2 million metric tonnes.