Farmers in the Lunama Agrarian Services Division and Koggalla Mahanama Farmers' Association in Ambalantota staged protests over the weekend (11 and 12) demanding fertilizer for their paddy fields.
Lunama farmers say that they had to protest in front of the Agrarian Services Center as they had to go empty handed without the fertilizer as the due date for the application of fertilizer to the paddy fields had already expired.
The farmers alleged that the fertilizer had been smuggled in for banana cultivation.
When inquired about this from the officer in charge, she said that she could not give any statement.
Meanwhile farmers of the Koggalla Mahanama Farmers' Association in Ambalantota staged a protest demanding urea fertilizer for their three-month-old crop.
Although the Minister of Agriculture has stated that there is enough fertilizer for the Yala season this year under the government fertilizer subsidy, the farmers say that the fertilizer is not given to warehouses for the ground-level farmers to obtain. Farmers say that if they do not apply fertilizer within three months of harvest, the paddy fields will be ruined.
(Text and pix by Rahula Samantha Hettiarachchi – Hambantota)
LUNAMA:
AMBALANTOTA:
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