By Ifham Nizam

The Academics’ Movement to Safeguard Agriculture (AMSA) Sri Lanka, a concerned group of University academia, representing Faculties of Agriculture and Technology, yesterday stressed that they would not allow a repeat of the mistake of last year when the government decided on a fertiliser policy that was a disaster to the country’s economy, particularly affecting the farming community.

Senior Professor Buddhi Marambe from the Faculty of Agriculture (University of Peradeniya stressed that they were now of the opinion that they should have come down hard and gone public about the devastation brought upon farmers by the government policy.

“Today, marks one calendar year since that irrational decision to ban the imports of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, two important categories of agricultural inputs that have contributed significantly in achieving national food security over the past six decades”, Prof. Marambe said.

He however maintained that the abrupt decision taken during the early part of the Yala season of 2021 to move into total organic agriculture starting from the Maha season of 2021/2022 had run into stiff resistance from many scientists in the field of agriculture.

Professor W. A. J. M. de Costa, Senior Professor and Chair of Crop Science, Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya told journalists that scientists, academia and a range of stakeholder groups had pleaded with the government to reverse the decision soon without causing an imminent threat to food security.

However, all such efforts had been in vein, said Professor Marambe, adding “We are now experiencing the impact of a man-made disaster.”

He said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s recent statement that his decision against providing chemical fertiliser was a mistake spoke volumes for the negative impacts of the unfortunate decision made a year ago.

The new Minister of Agriculture, at the time of assuming duties in office, jhad pledged to import chemical fertiliser and regain the status of self-sufficiency in rice, AMSA team said.

They also said Sri Lanka annually required about 2.3 to 2.4 million tonnes of rice. With the exception of 2016 and 2017, when large parts of Sri Lanka experienced a prolonged drought, the country’s rice production had exceeded its requirement since 2008.

“However, things have changed dramatically since the Maha season of 2021/2022 as the country is now more dependent on the rice imported from other countries like Myanmar, India, Pakistan and China.”

AMSA consists of a group of concerned academics in agriculture who have come together as a think-tank and a pressure group to voice their opinions and proposals for the recovery and subsequent development of Sri Lankan agriculture as a vibrant component of the national economy.

This movement has emerged in response to the non-scientific and non-professional approach adopted for agriculture by the government with the support of so-called intellectuals with half-baked science, especially on agriculture. SuAt the press conference, AMSA said they would present the short- to-medium-term implementable work plans aiming at the recovery of the agriculture sector of Sri Lanka by addressing the following segments, especially focusing on the crop production segment.

(a) Agricultural input supply: seeds and planting material, fertilizer, pesticides, machinery, and service-oriented functions such as precision agricultural technologies (b) Crop management packages: good agricultural practices (GAP), including integrated plant nutrient systems (IPNS) and integrated pest management systems (IPM) (c) Increasing local and export market potential: post-harvest handling, value addition, market models, and food system approach.