Sri Lanka’s Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera says that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has agreed to provide 36,000 metric tons of Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) fertilizer needed for paddy cultivation to Sri Lanka.
Although the country’s economic crisis has had a severe impact on the provision of urea fertilizer, bandi fertilizer (Muriate of Potash) and triple super phosphate fertilizer or mud fertilizer required for rice cultivation, the government has been able to provide the complete urea fertilizer and bandi fertilizer required for rice and maize cultivation, Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.
The Minister made these disclosures at the progress review meeting held at the Ministry of Agriculture regarding the distribution of fertilizers required for the 2022/23 season. A large number of officials attended the event.
The Minister said they had to face a problem in finding funds to provide the base fertilizer or TSP fertilizer for the Maha Season but the USAID has agreed to provide 36,000 metric tons of TSP fertilizer to the country as aid.
However, there is a difficulty in getting that fertilizer this season, because TSP is produced in Ukraine and Russia, they have stopped exporting that fertilizer due to ongoing conflict between them, the Minister said.
Therefore, the minister informed that the TSP fertilizer is ready to be given free of cost to the farmers in the next Yala season.
According to the soil tests conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture throughout the island, it has been confirmed that except for a few districts in the Eastern Province, the soils in almost all the other districts of the island contain enough phosphorus.
Therefore, regardless of the accusations made by some people who claim to be farmers’ organizations, by taking measures to provide fertilizers under Soil Test Basis, the impact on the yield can be minimized by using minimum amount of fertilizers, Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture Rohana Pushpakumara said.
According to soil tests, there is a high amount of phosphorus in the soils of the North-West and North-Central Provinces. Although there is a minimum amount of phosphorus in the Eastern Province, rock phosphate can cover that amount. It has also been revealed that in other districts, phosphorus content in the soil is moderate.
Therefore, during the Maha season, there will not be a significant reduction in the yield of paddy cultivation, and there may be a yield reduction of between 05% and 10%, the Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. Rohana Pushpakumara pointed out.