As an agricultural country, Sri Lanka’s major aim is to utilize its agricultural resource base for fulfilling the food requirement of its citizens while capturing a larger share of the export market for agricultural commodities.
Sri Lankan culture has a long history dominated by paddy cultivation, powered by eco-agricultural practices. This sustainable agriculture, dating back to several thousands of years, was disturbed by Asian invaders from time to time and underwent a huge blow under European occupation during last four centuries.
Even though the countrymen were awaiting a recovery after independence in the late 1940s, technological invasion in the form of a ‘green revolution’ in the mid 1960s gradually replaced the traditional (eco-friendly) technologies with so-called high-tech inputs introduced by agro-chemical based ‘conventional agriculture’. Presently, mainstream agriculture in Sri Lanka is limited to conventional agro-chemical based agriculture for the purposes of maintaining soil fertitility, pest management and weed control.
Even though agro-chemicals provided fascinating yield increments in agricultural crops during first few years after introduction, their dark side on environmental sustainability was revealed at the global level since 1960s. Sri Lanka realized the same with the escalating numbers of non-communicable health issues in the society. However blindfolded by risk management and profit maximization needs, the warnings on their excessive usage were left unheard by commercial farmers, field officers, agro-chemical dealers and many other concerned parties during the last two decades.
Now, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Cabinet have taken a policy decision on imposing an import ban on agro-chemicals with immediate effect. Here, leading agriculturist Senior Professor Palitha Weerakkody clarifies the basis behind this decision and discusses a possible resolution for the agro-chemical need in agriculture.
Q: Why is conventional agriculture no longer environmentally sustainable?
A. Apparently it is highly attractive to farmers due to its tremendous gains in productivity and quick response to application. Conversely, the application of both chemical fertilizer formulations and synthetic pesticides (including insecticides, fungicides and herbicides) directly harms the natural biosphere.
Particularly, chemical fertilizers are often incorporated to the soil so that their high ionic concentration and resultant change in soil pH (i.e. acidity) makes it detrimental for the diverse micro flora living in the rhizosphere (root environment), including important role-players in natural mineralization and bio-degradation processes of the soil.
Therefore, their long-term usage leads to loss of soil fertility as has happened to nearly 60 percent of the arable lands in Sri Lanka, including a large extent of tea and vegetable growing areas in the up-country. Meanwhile the effect of synthetic pesticides on the nervous system and skin tissues and their indirect harm on mammalian metabolism, etc., are not only harmful on the target organisms but also on beneficial organisms, human and other mammals directly or indirectly (by entering through food chains).
Hence they too are highly harmful for the much-needed biodiversity in the agricultural field and also to human and animal health, acutely or chronically. Especially, contamination of fresh food and water resources with agro-chemicals has been identified as one of the highly possible causes for cancers, kidney diseases and some other non-communicable diseases in other parts of the world.
Q: What economic consequences are associated with the use of agro-chemicals?
A. In the first place, almost all agro-chemicals are of foreign origin so that there is a huge amount of foreign exchange needed for importing them. This amount is more than Rs. 100 billion per year and thus they consume nearly 25 to 30 percent of the entire foreign exchange earnings from the agricultural produce exports. And they cover nearly half of the recurrent farm cost of annual (field) crops. Other than the issue of economic un-sustainability, in a long run the dependency on foreign inputs (including machinery and seeds) for national agriculture is extremely harmful for self-sufficiency in food of a sovereign nation. This was very obvious at times of disasters where sea freight was disturbed such as after the Asian Tsunami in 2004 and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Q: Why were the authorities so late to act on this?
A. National level steps have been taken in several instances in history by different governments in Sri Lanka for reducing the over-usage of agro-chemicals. Among them, a Cabinet decision taken in 2014 regarding the gradual decrease in utilization of agro-chemicals and the decision on establishment of organic agricultural villages a few years ago can be considered as major milestones in this regard. However, the implementation of these measures were always problematic as the officials either had negative attitudes or were incentivized by the local agents of the agro-chemical companies. The Cabinet decision taken very recently on banning import of agro-chemicals by the present government, can be considered as another massive step forward in addressing this national issue.
Q:As the establishment of environmental sustainability within Sri Lanka’s agricultural sector is definitely a paradigm shift, is this sudden move advisable?
A. In the first few seasons, lack of chemical fertilizer may have a negative effect on the crop yields while lack of synthetic pesticides may increase the risk of crop failures due to biotic stress. However, these issues can gradually be overcome through the application of alternative eco-friendly organic fertilizers, bio-fertililizers, soil conditioners and alternative pest control strategies. If the Government could bridge the gap between the demand and supply of these alternative technical inputs, the consumers would gladly welcome the improved quality of agricultural products as opposed to agro-chemical contaminations. In the meantime, the most difficult matter to deal with would be the resistance from conventional farmers and fieldworkers who are not familiar with this new form of agriculture.
Q: How would you expect the possible short supply in the market to be corrected?
A. An accelerated programme for introducing a technological package for the different steps in the value-chain for minimizing post-harvest losses would be the best approach for meeting the market demand under possible short supplies. Importation of selected food items would be the last option. In the meantime, cost cutting due to lack of agro-chemical use would add additional net returns to the farm budget, consoling the farmers’ grievances. In event of a severe crop failure, crop insurance can be arranged by utilizing the remaining Budgetary allocations, previously allocated for the fertilizer subsidy, as correctly suggested by the state authorities.
Q:Can you elaborate on the alternative technologies used to replace agro-chemicals?
A. In ecological agriculture, technical inputs including organic fertilizer, bio fertilizer, soil amendments, IPM (Integrated pest management) technology, IWM (Integrated weed management) technology, etc., are usually practised as alternatives to chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides used in conventional agriculture.
Organic fertilizers maintain soil fertility by serving as a source of plant nutrients that are removed with the harvest. They increase the bioavailability of essential plant nutrients including nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, etc. Further their contribution to soil carbon pool nourishes soil microbes and improves chemical and physical properties of soil. Bio fertilizers serve the purpose of converting plant nutrients found in organic matter complexes to available forms through biodegradation in the soil environment. Various research studies and experiments have proven their role in maintaining soil fertility.
Soil amendments (i.e. bio-charcoal) help retention of soil moisture and plant nutrients in soil with their large surface area and the negative charge. Meanwhile IPM is a combined approach of genetic, cultural, physical (mechanical), chemical and biological control of insect pests and diseases in plants. A similar approach followed for weed management is denoted by the acronym IWM. The negative impacts of severe pest damage and weed infestations can be sustainably counteracted by these technologies. Even though the main target of chemical control of pests and weeds is complete irradiation of these harmful organisms in crop fields, the integrated approach aims to maintain their populations below the economic threshold level. However, the variability of the year-round availability of these new generation of technical inputs is a major challenge faced by ecological farmers and the field level extension officers.
Q: How do you rate the need of adequate personal resources for making sustainable agriculture a success?
A. As the primary actors of the supply-chain, farmers have the most important role to play. Therefore, well-trained farmer groups and extension worker groups are a must for implementing the proposed new agricultural programme. Apart from that, service provider groups at regional levels with respect to alternative practices in plant nutrition and plant protection are needed to cover the labour and time requirement for applying alternative technologies at the field level. For example, mechanical weeding, spraying herbal pesticides and application of organic manures can be done by them at the request of the farmer. Apart from this, institutional support in handling an efficient and effective research and extension programmes, programme management and commercial production and supply of technical inputs must be looked after by well-trained and committed teams of officials. Regarding field crop-based agriculture, the personal resource requirements are mainly fulfilled through state institutions such as the Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the Department of Govijana Development (DGD).
Arrested recruitments of agricultural graduates in research and extension cadres by the DOA within the last eight years would be the best example for deficiency of officials in DOA for fulfilling the personal resources needs mentioned earlier. Apart from the quantitative issue of the existing human resources pertaining to technical expertise, their quality with respect to competency and attitudes towards alternative agriculture is highly doubtful due to their educational background and long years of involvement in conventional agriculture. For overcoming this challenge filling the existing cadres of the DOA and the DGD with qualified young graduates having a passion for ecological agriculture can be suggested. It will be a strength for implementing the ecological agriculture programme, especially by training farmers and lower cadres in the extension divisions properly.
Q: Would the gaps in attitudes within the stakeholder groups be a barrier against the forward march of the eco-agriculture programme?
A. Yes, it will be; because they have never been exposed to ecological agriculture during their educational or training programmes. Conventional agriculture has been practised in our country for 30 to 40 years. During this time, farmers mainly applied agro-chemicals especially because they are quick in response, easy to practise and assure promising harvests, compared to traditional agriculture.
Now the traditional farmers who practised indigenous and environment friendly agri-technologies have been swept out of the farming community. Hence the knowledge on indigenous agri-technologies also have been drained out of the contemporary knowledge pool along with them. This phenomenon is more or less the same among the other groups of professionals such as scientists, system managers and bureaucrats who run the show behind the screen. Therefore, prompt actions, targeting a huge change in mindset towards ecological agriculture is a must.
It can be done in several ways: (a) a media campaign targeting the general public; (b) participation of renowned personalities from agriculture, health, food and environmental sciences together with the community opinion leaders. Target-oriented training programmes for extension workers and lower to middle level officials will be the ultimate stage set for bridging the gaps in their attitudes.
Q: How far would ‘part-time employment in agriculture’ and ‘out-migration of labour from agriculture’ affect the anticipated boom in ecological agriculture?
A. Around the 1960s, about 70 percent of Sri Lankan livelihoods depended on full-time farming. At present, this situation has changed a lot, making this amount decrease down to around 40 percent. Apart from this, mounting socio-economic pressure has squeezed the farmer families and offered non-agriculture job opportunities on full or part-time basis for the farmer or his family members in the other sectors of the economy. This part-time operation in agriculture does not allow them to be engaged in farm-level drudgeries with respect to formation and storage of alternative technologies or inputs for replacing agrochemicals. Organic fertilizer (i.e. leaf extract) preparation is one of such time-consuming work which needs full-time farmer commitments. Overcoming this challenge is highly difficult, but promotion of full-time farming via new packages of agricultural production, marketing and farmer insurance will bring them back to be energetic full-time growers in the future.
Q: Should leeway be allowed, especially during the transitional period?
A. Yes, a transitional period will be needed for following niche sub-sectors in agricultural production and marketing.
. High-tech, export-oriented and urban agriculture
Regarding hydroponics practised in greenhouses, a fully soluble, complete (containing all essential plant nutrients) fertilizers serve as the sole nutrient source for the plants. Since hydroponic systems do not utilize soil, the whole nutrient requirement of the plant needs to be met with the fertigation solution applied to plants in various manners daily or even hourly. Even though home-made non-chemical fertilizer sources are locally available for hydroponics, their commercialization step is yet to be implemented. Hence bridging this gap by importing either inorganic or liquid organic fertilizers, recommended for hydroponics, needs to be allowed during the transitional period.
Meanwhile, export-oriented horticultural production ventures in Sri Lanka are needed to attain the quality standards set forth by the buyers. Therefore, the specialty fertilizers, growth regulators, ripening agents, pesticides and post-harvest fungal treatments, etc., must be allowed (with a strict monitoring programme against their misuse) to keep up with the demand variables, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Urban community practising home gardening of fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc., is another minor group affected by the recent agro-chemical ban. Regarding the contribution of this agricultural practice for social harmony, a certain degree of waiver for a short period can be allowed for them until tailor-made solutions for alternatives to agro-chemicals will be introduced to them through research and developments.
. Rain-fed agriculture and climate change impacts
For example, rain-fed rice cultivation basically does not allow cultural control of post-emergent weeds by submerging as water is not available when needed. When climate change impact affects the seasonal rainfall patterns this situation becomes severe. Unfavourable soil conditions occur under water stress affect the soil microbial biomass in particular affecting the natural mineral cycles and thus the nutrient dynamics in soil might cause unexpectedly low plant nutrition. Meanwhile relatively dry conditions occur under droughts increase the pest populations such as mites while prolonged rainy conditions increase the soil and air-borne pathogens leading to wilt, powdery mildew, late blight etc. Therefore, proper agronomic measures for maintaining soil moisture and the need of a buffer stock of pesticides will be needed for protecting rain-fed cropping systems and particularly under the climate-change scenario.
Q: How do you forecast the type of challenges faced by ecological agriculture in Sri Lanka and their severity in the next couple of years?
A. The following major challenges can be forecasted on the ecological agriculture programme within and outside the system.
. Multinational agro-chemical syndicates
It’s a well-known fact that the developed world keeps their developing counterparts either as battlefields or economic slaves or test animals. Some says it’s the new form of colonialism. Scientific development and the resultant technology is their control arm. Therefore, agro-chemicals, hybrid seeds, farm machinery, processing technologies, etc., are the tools they used to control the sovereignty in food and agriculture of the Third World.
The nation’s non-dependent policy on one of them will be alarming for their stability in other technical input markets. Therefore, it is crystal clear that they will use all the ammunition to fight against the import ban on agro-chemicals. Opportunists in all categories may be under the payroll of the anti-organic brigade at this very moment, for fighting against this people-friendly brave step of the Government. If the public will be prudent enough to grab the right point out of two different kind of critics and act accordingly, we will fire our first cannon against this new era of colonialism in Sri Lankan agriculture which has reigned for the last 46 years.
. So-called pressure groups of sustainable agriculture and the organic ventures
Some of the pressure groups who stand for different forms of sustainable agriculture receive international funding for their role play. If the entire national agriculture will make a paradigm shift towards sustainable agriculture, the former will be scared of losing their jobs and many other remunerations tagged with them. Similarly, the market dominance in organic agriculture will be lost for the leading organic growers and exporters when everybody gets the opportunity to get registered under organic certification in a few years’ time. Therefore, it’s very obvious that none of these groups will be happy to see this transition in national agriculture. If they team up with the agents and supporters of the multinational giants in agro-chemical business, ensuring the forward march of this brilliant step in the history of Sri Lankan agriculture will be in vain.
The way forward
The opportunities and strengths entailed to this anticipated reformation in Sri Lankan agriculture needs to be harnessed in the best possible way by the Ministerial and institutional staff in the fields of food and plantation versions of agriculture in Sri Lanka. The reported weaknesses need to be minimized and challenges must be faced with alternative technologies and protocols. The blessings of the entire nation, unconditional support of the private and public institutions and the fullest commitment of the farmers and field workers will be immensely important to achieve this herculean task.
(Concluded)
