3 ms·
The government is trying very hard to preserve its USD reserves. Importing vehicles is downright banned for 16 months now, and there are many rules imposed to c
by Ayesh 5y ago
The government is trying very hard to preserve its USD reserves. Importing vehicles is downright banned for 16 months now, and there are many rules imposed to control the USD outflow and improve the inflow.
I don't think this is anything new amidst a global pandemic, in a country that depended on tourism.
Saying that chemical fertilizer ban caused a food shortage isn't any fair or accurate, because the sugar crisis (a can of worms by itself) happened before the fertilizer ban, and the government imposing lockdowns caused the food supply issues. That said, there are many companies increasing their organic fertilizer production, and even smaller scale individual investors who are planning to produce organic fertilizers too.
Many of us see this as a net positive, but there must be a ramp, as opposed to an overnight switch.
- draw_down 5y agoCome on
- metalliqaz 5y ago"Many of us see this as a net positive, but there must be a ramp, as opposed to an overnight switch." Yes, absolutely. The move has to be done gradually to allow farming to adapt. An overnight cutoff would surely cause yields to drop. What isn't clear to me is how much warning was given for the ban. Was it announced ahead of time?
- Ayesh 5y agoThe current president was elected in 2019, and I believe it was one of his "visions" to change chemical fertilizers to organic. In the northern parts of the country, where the majority of rice farms are, a considerable percentage of people have kidney diseases that attribute to the use of chemical fertilizer. There is a surplus of rice production in the country, so I don't think the reduced crop will make a big difference. However, the state of tea farming is not the same. Price of Sri Lankan tea (Ceylon tea as it's commonly called) at auctions was slowly going down for the past few years, and tea estates expect the government to make an exception for them. Since this ban was announced, the finance minister was changed to the brother of the current president (another can of worms), who might make necessary changes, exceptions, or probably just delay it to make sure the tea industry isn't disrupted.
- montalbano 5y agoAre you sure about the first paragraph? This article suggest otherwise: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210901-sri-lanka-organic-revolution-threatens-tea-disaster https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210901-sri-lanka-org... Rajapaksa came to power in 2019 promising subsidised foreign fertiliser but did a U-turn arguing that agro chemicals were poisoning people.
- yread 5y agoSri Lanka is actually not that dependent on tourism in 2019 it was 12% of GDP compared to 18% for Thailand