Ban of chemical fertilizers is a great news

celtic tiger wrote:If president can do this, few generation to come will get the benefit of being healthy nation. If he can stand up for what he said, that's the man 65....voted.

celtic tiger wrote:If president can do this, few generation to come will get the benefit of being healthy nation. If he can stand up for what he said, that's the man 65....voted.

xhunter wrote:

celtic tiger wrote:If president can do this, few generation to come will get the benefit of being healthy nation. If he can stand up for what he said, that's the man 65....voted.

most important things is "how this ban is imposed".
because sri lanka imports ONLY around 7000 tones NPK fertilizer per year.
but there are other chemical compound we import will be used to produce fertilizer or some can be directly use as fertilizer. 
of course any of those can be directly use as fertilizer because NPK fertilizers produced by just mixing them.
these are chemicals i know
Ammonium nitrate
Ammonium sulphate
Potassium sulphate
Potassium chloride (aka MOP)
Potassium nitrate
Diammonium phosphate 
Monoammonium phosphate
Superphosphate
Diaminomethanone  (aka Urea)

if we just check figures, around 200,000 tones of Urea were imported to sri lanka per year.
i don't know weather other industries use these chemicals. Even Urea can be used to make explosive.

so technically it is not a fertilizer ban. it is import ban for set of chemicals.
all these chemical should included in the banned list.

celtic tiger wrote:Picture  this ...country with
1.Chemical free food 
2.Plastic free en..
3.Best air quality in Asia
4.35% forest cover
will it be a better place to live,holiday and even invest ?????

celtic tiger wrote:Picture  this ...country with
1.Chemical free food 
2.Plastic free en..
3.Best air quality in Asia
4.35% forest cover
will it be a better place to live,holiday and even invest ?????

dayandacool wrote:

celtic tiger wrote:Picture  this ...country with
1.Chemical free food 
2.Plastic free en..
3.Best air quality in Asia
4.35% forest cover
will it be a better place to live,holiday and even invest ?????

The question is have they done a proper feasibility study about the Organic fertilizer?

1) How much organic fertilizer needed to get the same crop / yield ?
2) Can they produce organic fertilizer to match the aforesaid quantities?
3) Who is going to produce the organic fertilizer? farmers / government ?
4) Do they have the know how?

If they go ahead with an import ban without answering above, we are in for some trouble. does anyone remember the governments maize import ban without properly / gradually substituting it with some local produce? If you compare the price of 1 kg of chicken today, you will get the answer. We are a country still not self sufficient in food. If government tries to reduce expenditure for chemical fertilizer without properly implementing substitutions, we will end up spending more money on food imports than actually saving from fertilizer.

While admiring the concept, I criticize the method and procedure or lack of it in implementation. Hope this will not end up as just another paper which will be rolled back in a months time when they realize the practical aspects of it.

Oh and do have a price comparison of 1 kg of organic chicken and normal chicken just for fun 

xhunter wrote:

dayandacool wrote:

celtic tiger wrote:Picture  this ...country with
1.Chemical free food 
2.Plastic free en..
3.Best air quality in Asia
4.35% forest cover
will it be a better place to live,holiday and even invest ?????

The question is have they done a proper feasibility study about the Organic fertilizer?

1) How much organic fertilizer needed to get the same crop / yield ?
2) Can they produce organic fertilizer to match the aforesaid quantities?
3) Who is going to produce the organic fertilizer? farmers / government ?
4) Do they have the know how?

If they go ahead with an import ban without answering above, we are in for some trouble. does anyone remember the governments maize import ban without properly / gradually substituting it with some local produce? If you compare the price of 1 kg of chicken today, you will get the answer. We are a country still not self sufficient in food. If government tries to reduce expenditure for chemical fertilizer without properly implementing substitutions, we will end up spending more money on food imports than actually saving from fertilizer.

While admiring the concept, I criticize the method and procedure or lack of it in implementation. Hope this will not end up as just another paper which will be rolled back in a months time when they realize the practical aspects of it.

Oh and do have a price comparison of 1 kg of organic chicken and normal chicken just for fun 

This is not a ad-hoc move, they might have a proper plan. government never say they will stop using chemical fertilizer.
what they say is they will impose an import ban on fertilizer.
at the same time they say sri lanka has enough stock for 1 more year.
so they have 1 year for all establishments. 

Minister said we have P and K sources, but N is the only issue.
this is a news from Dec-2020
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_20B/Dec22_1608616421CH.php
http://bizenglish.adaderana.lk/govt-to-conduct-feasibility-study-for-urea-fertilizer-production/

this is what government is trying to do.

local urea production is not something new to sri lanka.

at the same time they have an idea to increase usage of organic fertilizer for crop like paddy, vegetables.

i am not sure but probably they might have done a proper feasibility study.

in 1982 sri lanka has produced 97000 tones of urea.

celtic tiger wrote:If you try to address all the issues before you start , It will never going to happen.
wright brothers invented first flight but it did not look like a boing dream liner or A380 .

dayandacool wrote:

celtic tiger wrote:If you try to address all the issues before you start , It will never going to happen.
wright brothers invented first flight but it did not look like a boing dream liner or A380 .

 Wright brothers had nothing to lose even if they failed. We are talking about feeding a nation. I'm pretty sure there is a gulf between them. Apples and oranges   

celtic tiger wrote:

dayandacool wrote:

celtic tiger wrote:If you try to address all the issues before you start , It will never going to happen.
wright brothers invented first flight but it did not look like a boing dream liner or A380 .

 Wright brothers had nothing to lose even if they failed. We are talking about feeding a nation. I'm pretty sure there is a gulf between them. Apples and oranges   

Yes it's Apples and Oranges.
'Without chemical use , can't feed the nation' was the slogan of mosanto in 1970s.Thats how they start to destroy our fertile land . This is a nation who fed their people for thousands of years without chemical. we never had a famine.
future is Organic food, green energy and sustainable development.

dayandacool wrote:

celtic tiger wrote:

dayandacool wrote:

celtic tiger wrote:If you try to address all the issues before you start , It will never going to happen.
wright brothers invented first flight but it did not look like a boing dream liner or A380 .

 Wright brothers had nothing to lose even if they failed. We are talking about feeding a nation. I'm pretty sure there is a gulf between them. Apples and oranges   

Yes it's Apples and Oranges.
'Without chemical use , can't feed the nation' was the slogan of mosanto in 1970s.Thats how they start to destroy our fertile land . This is a nation who fed their people for thousands of years without chemical. we never had a famine.
future is Organic food, green energy and sustainable development.

I believe there is no argument that future is sustainable development and organic food ect. Argument is how to get there. If someone says we will do it 1 year, it's not going to work. People are expecting a system change. Guess what? it hasn't arrived yet. I have applied for the organic certification in 2019 for my land cultivation. Still pending. and they are talking about going organic all over the country. It's funny!!!

and have a look at the population growth in 1970's and present. and do check the cultivated land area in 70's against present. You will see that they are inversely proportional. So you know where this is heading. When strategies are planned and goals are set, one of the first things to look at is the achievability of such goals. Beside that, do explore agricultural technologies developed by countries like Israel. Not all the fertilizers which are not organic cause diseases. It's up to the experts in the industries to come forward.

I had 5 acres of Chilli (MICH Hybrid 1 which was invented by local scientist and crop researcher Dr kannangara, one of the greatest in the industry whom I met personally to get info at Mahailluppallama crop research institute ). Guess what, Dr said that all the info has been given to the district agri officers about the crop and I need not to pay visits to the research institute every now and then.

It turned out the agri officer had no clue about the hybrid or any of the process involving cultivation of hybrid chilli. So no need to tell u more about what happened to my pilot project. This is just to tell you, that information regarding the processes which are developed at the top level hardly reaches the ground level where actually things are done.

If someone says government will Ban imports of fertilizer and replace them with substitutes in a short period of time, Thats not going to happen. How ever what could happen is that we will have severe shortage of food production resulting in more imports of food.

First they should convince the farmers to go Organic and try the results. then they could gradually Ban imports of fertilizer. Otherwise it's just going to be another Slogan. There were quite a few. Dr. Senaka Bibile's Drug policy is another slogan. Our beloved heroic leaders couldn't still enact it. How many of you all still have P**adol instead of Paracetamol ???

So apples, oranges, grapes, avocado, what else??

dayandacool wrote:Even though I am not an expert, my sentiment is shared by the experts in the field. It needs to be a gradual process and not an ad hoc move.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/210502/news/shipments-turned-away-govt-pushes-ahead-with-chemical-fertiliser-ban-442126.html

celtic tiger wrote:

dayandacool wrote:Even though I am not an expert, my sentiment is shared by the experts in the field. It needs to be a gradual process and not an ad hoc move.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/210502/news/shipments-turned-away-govt-pushes-ahead-with-chemical-fertiliser-ban-442126.html

Are you sure those so called experts not in payrolls of multinational companies.
you should watch Tissa jananayake-epi 133 on you tub.

dayandacool wrote:An ill-advised unplanned decision can topple an entire industry.

https://ceylontoday.lk/news/decision-could-devastate-tea-plantations-lcelu-president

dayandacool wrote:Well, at least professionals in the subject field is trying their best to make a voice against ad hoc measures. It's the responsibility of those who are in power to heed their call instead of going for cheap heroism and propaganda. The writer of the below article is a Professor of Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya not an A-LEVEL BIOLOGY TEACHER!!!!

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/210509/sunday-times-2/organic-fertiliser-only-policy-will-plunge-lanka-into-a-food-crisis-442857.html

@celtic tiger


Please read at least the last paragraph of the article and the suggestions given.