The government has decided to provide financial allocations in the form of vouchers to the farmers who cultivate paddy in the Yala season to buy chemical or organic fertilizers.
This step has been taken with the aim of reducing the production costs of those farmers.
Accordingly, arrangements have been made to provide a subsidy of Rs. 20,000 for one hectare and Rs. 40,000 rupees for two hectares.
This year, the amount allocated by the government for fertilizer subsidy is 10 billion rupees.
It has been decided to provide this financial subsidy in the form of a voucher to every farmer.
The Department of Agricultural Development is issuing these vouchers to 650,000 farmers who are cultivating paddy this year.
Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera says that farmers can buy only chemical fertilizers or organic fertilizers with these vouchers.
Also, according to the wishes of the farmers, the chemical or organic fertilizers supplied by the two government fertilizer companies have been given the opportunity to buy from all agricultural service centers, as well as from the private sector.
The symbolic issuance of these fertilizer subsidy vouchers was done this afternoon (22) to 25 farmers by the Minister of Agriculture Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera at the Ministry of Agriculture Auditorium.