The soil damaged and made ill by agrochemicals should be cured by using carbonic manure, says the Governor of the Eastern Province Anuradha Yahampath.

Participating in the Aluth Sahal Mangallaya or the New Rice Festival, the first harvest festival of the 100 acres of organic paddy cultivation in the Eastern Province for the Yala season and trade exhibition in Kantale last week, Governor Yahampath said that witnessing the harvest of the first 100 acres cultivated using organic techniques was one of the milestones of her life. “The Aluth Sahal Mangallaya is not something new in our culture and the farmers of this province. But today we make a festival for the harvest of the first 100 acres of paddy cultivated using organic fertiliser and indigenous practices in countering the threats of weeds and pests. This is an environment friendly method. We have proven that using our indigenous knowledge we can produce food while in the meantime restoring an environment that had been damaged by years due to use of chemicals.”

She said that the advent of the use of chemicals in agriculture was neither an accident nor something that the country had asked for. “Western countries started using chemical fertilisers for agriculture soon after World War II to expedite the process of food production as there was a food scarcity. Protecting the environment was not a priority for them. During the times of the Cold War both the US and Russia started helping the developing countries by supplying chemical fertilisers to woo them into their rival camps. Thereafter, they introduced commercial agriculture and fixed a label on it as the Green Revolution. There is nothing green in that because it propagated the use of chemicals. Many of those who promoted chemical fertilisers today changed their methods and are using carbonic manure. We must understand the damage inflicted on our soil by the chemical fertilisers and shift ourselves from that toxic danger to environmental restoration. That is not something impossible. Look at the Kantale Tank built by King Agbo the Second. Such tanks did not come up by themselves. If our elder generations could do such marvels, we too can change the prevailing trend of using chemicals and restore our environment.”

Among those present were Chief Secretary to the Eastern Province Thusitha P Wanigasinghe, Consultant of the Deyata Hithethi Govithena Project Dr. Keerthi Wickremasinghe, Secretary to the government LP Madanayake, Trincomalee District Secretary Asanka Abeywardena, Provincial Agriculture Secretary and Provincial Agriculture Director and other officials.