The government provides Rs.4000 fertilizer subsidy for rubber cultivation

Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries stated that the government has decided to provide fertilizer subsidy to the rubber cultivators in order to increase the yield from rubber cultivation in the country.

The Sri Lanka Rubber Research Institute has shown that no fertilizer has been applied to rubber cultivation in Sri Lanka for many years. Accordingly, the annual latex yield has decreased from 100,000 metric tons to 65,000 metric tons.

Taking this matter into consideration, the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera advised the Chairman of State Fertilizer Company, Dr. Jagath Perera to take steps to reduce the price of a 50 kg bag of fertilizer used for rubber cultivation from Rs.9,500 to Rs.5,500.

Accordingly, steps have been taken to provide the fertilizer subsidy for rubber cultivation from this week itself.

Currently, a huge fertilizer subsidy of 25,000 rupees per hectare has been provided to paddy cultivation and in addition, the government has taken measures to provide fertilizer subsidies of 4000 rupees for tea, coconut and cinnamon plantations. The minister also mentioned that the government has taken steps to provide the same fertilizer subsidy to the growers for rubber cultivation.