The government has decided to provide a 50 kg bag of urea to paddy farmers for Rs 10,000.
The Ministry of Agriculture has today (28) received the first batch of 13,000 tons of urea under the World Bank concessional emergency loan of 110 million US dollars.
Sri Lanka needs approximately 150,000 tonnes of urea fertilizer for paddy cultivation during the Maha season.
Mr. Rohana Pushpakumara, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Mr. Suren Batagoda, Senior Adviser to the President on Food Security, confirm that it is possible to provide it completely.
These fertilizers are distributed directly to the paddy owners through agricultural service centers. Paddy field owners cultivating paddy up to a minimum of 2 hectares will be able to purchase a fixed number of bags depending on the area they have set aside for paddy cultivation.
The maximum amount of fertilizer each farmer can purchase is determined based on the recommendations of the Department of Agriculture, with variations depending on the agro-ecological zone.
In addition, 12,000 metric tons of urea is to be provided for 60,000 hectares of maize farmers, and the price of 50 kg urea bag is Rs. 15,000.
Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that this step was taken with the aim of protecting household food security, farming and rural incomes based on the demands made in several discussions with the intervention of President Ranil Wickramasinghe.
These World Bank loans are in addition to assistance from other development partners such as the Asian Development Bank and the United States Agency for International Development.
Currently, the war situation in Ukraine and the world geopolitical conditions present a very challenging market situation regarding the production and distribution of fertilizers.
In an environment where the selling market price is rising, the Ministry of Agriculture has signed three contracts for the supply of 12,500 metric tons, 50,000 metric tons and 45,000 metric tons of urea in three phases.
The agreement to procure another 25,000 metric tons of urea is to be signed soon.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 21,000 metric tons of urea has already been distributed to farmers for the Maha season under the Indian Concessional Loan Foundation.
With the support of the World Bank, the Ministry of Agriculture has taken steps to deploy a Geo-Enabling Monitoring System (GEMS) to monitor the distribution of fertilizers from ports to agricultural service centers and from agricultural service centers to farmers. The system is also used for environmental and social risk management, grievance redressal and impact monitoring.