Barely six months after Sri Lanka’s overnight flip to complete organic cultivation and ban on chemical fertiliser imports, several stumbling blocks have pushed the island nation to finally junk the policy.

Over the last few days, the Sri Lankan government has distributed a consignment of 3.1 million litres of nano urea fertiliser, which it imported from the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) in India, to farmers across Ampara, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa for paddy cultivation. 

The total nano urea consignment from IFFCO is estimated to be around one million bottles. 

According to local media reports, the country is also importing 30,000 tonnes of potassium chloride from Lithuania and is in the process of shipping more ammonium sulphate from India.

The move came months after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government banned the import of all chemical agricultural inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides in a bid to achieve complete organic farming.

The Sri Lankan government was faced with widespread protests and anger in farmland districts of the country over lack of time and availability of organic fertilisers for the farmers to make the shift to complete organic farming. 

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