By Rathindra Kuruwita

It was now clear that the government banned agrochemicals to break the existing cartel that controlled fertiliser imports and help its business associates, Sajeewa Chamikara of the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) claimed yesterday.

Chamikara said that since banning the import of agrochemicals, the government had not held any discussions with stakeholders involved in organic agriculture in the country.

“It is now obvious that the government has no intention of going green. All it wants is to ensure that its associates will control the agrochemical market in the future. However, the government is bungling that up too.

Chamikara said that a country had to be extremely careful when bringing in organic material from other countries. Even air passengers are questioned whether they are bringing in seeds or plants from other countries.

“A lot of invasive plants have found their way into Sri Lanka. These invasive species can’t be controlled easily and one of the reasons our farmers use a lot of agrochemicals is to get rid of such plants. Imagine bringing in container loads of organic material. Imagine what can come in those? This is why most countries do not import compost and when they do, they are very careful,” Chamikara said.

Chamikara said that given that microorganisms in most agricultural lands had died due to the overuse of agrochemicals, it would take some time for the soil to recover. Until then a mixture of compost and agrochemicals need to be used in some lands for a year or two, he said. For that purpose, the stock of agrochemicals in the country was adequate, Chamikara said.

“Once this is done, we can move to more advanced stages of sustainable agriculture like ecological farming, agroforestry and analog forestry, that require little external inputs,” he said.

Due to various factors, Sri Lanka cannot have analog forests, an approach to ecological restoration which uses natural forests as guides to create ecologically stable and socio-economically productive landscapes, Chamikara said. Thus, the government needed to study what areas could be converted into ecological farming, agroforestry and analog forestry, he said.

“In some areas, due to slopes that lead to soil erosion, we will have to continuously use compost, especially in hill country vegetable farms. It is a decade long process to transition from organic farming to analog forests. The government must be practical and transparent, or the entire concept loses credibility,” he said. Chamikara said the government had done nothing to educate the farmers on how to engage in organic farming. For example those who planted tea used compost the way they used agrochemicals, which is not an effective way of using compost, he said.

“Farmers have not been told of the most basic things. Moreover, compost is only one component of organic agriculture. There are a number of specialised equipment and machinery needed to successfully engage in organic agriculture. We also need things like cutters and crushers to make compost on a large scale. There are a number of Sri Lankan companies that produce these machines, but they have not been given the necessary support to expand production,” he said.

Chamikara said that Sri Lanka also needed to gear its waste management system into making compost. Although, a large quantity of biodegradable waste was collected daily, most of it was thrown into dump sites. Compost could be created with the biodegradable waste and systems should be introduced to prevent heavy metal contamination.

“Heavy metals can come from things like batteries, bulbs and e-waste. We need to establish protocols to prevent such items from mixing with biodegradable waste,” he said.

Chamikara also said that dried leaves are not optimal for producing compost. A constant supply of fresh organic matter is needed for compost production. The government needs to put in a system where trees and grass removed from roadsides are collected and processed. Moreover, trees such as Gliricidia must be planted. “This is an exhaustive process,” he said.

Another factor that was vital for the success of organic agriculture was a healthy water table, Chamikara said. If the water table was not high, it was difficult to make organic agriculture work, he said. For this the irrigation tank network in the dry zone needed to be maintained and the continuous destruction of the forests needed to be stopped, he said.

“On the other hand, we keep on transferring land owned by small farmers to large companies. These companies are export oriented. In the first phase of shifting to organic agriculture, there is a drop in the harvest. We must take that into account and increase the area of farmlands but we are doing the opposite. In a way, the land use policy too has a role in organic agriculture. Has the government done anything that we have spoken about?” Chamikara asked.