‘It will be hard to find a farmer left’: Sri Lanka’s organic-only experiment collapses harvest and economy
‘It will be hard to find a farmer left’: Sri Lanka’s organic-only experiment collapses harvest and economy
There is barely a citizen of [Sri Lanka] who hasn’t felt the bite of catastrophic inflation and fuel, food and medicine shortages in recent weeks.
For the farmers of Sri Lanka, their problems began in April last year when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who now stands accused of pushing the country into financial ruin, implemented a sudden ban on chemical fertilisers.
The full implications of the ill-advised policy – which has now been reversed – are only just being realised. Farmers say their livelihoods are under threat and for the first time in its modern history, Sri Lanka, which usually grows rice and vegetables in abundance, could run out of food as harvests drop and the government can no longer afford the food imports the country has become overdependent on in recent years.
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