Fertilizer subsidy vouchers for farmers to purchase fertilizers in the Yala season

The government has decided to provide a subsidy to paddy farmers to purchase fertilizers required by them in this Yala season. Accordingly, arrangements have been made to provide a subsidy of 20,000 rupees per hectare and 40,000 rupees per two hectares.

Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, the Minister of Agriculture said that the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers was granted to provide this subsidy as a voucher and accordingly, this voucher is issued for farmers to purchase Bandi fertilizer (MOP) or organic fertilizer according to their choice.

The minister expressed his views while participating at a press conference held at the Information Department today (11).

The minister stated that –

This voucher will be handed over to the Government Printing Office for printing. Accordingly, it will take several weeks to issue these vouchers, which will be printed with a special watermark, to farmers. Accordingly, this voucher will allow farmers to buy Bandi fertilizer (MOP) or organic fertilizer if they want for their cultivation.

At present, the price of Urea fertilizer has decreased up to Rs.9,000 in the market. Therefore, farmers can purchase Urea fertilizer at a lower price from the open market other than the fertilizers provided by the two government fertilizer companies. Also, we provided Mud fertilizer free of charge to all farmers. Farmers need Bandi fertilizer in the upcoming period. Therefore, farmers can purchase Bandi fertilizer and organic fertilizer if needed through this voucher.

The minister stated that the government is expected to spend Rs.11 billion for this purpose.

The minister also expressed his views regarding the shortage of eggs in the country.

All the parties were convened by me to discuss on the shortage of eggs. I emphasize that local egg production will increase in the coming few months. Although daily egg production before two months was 3.2 million it has risen up to 5.2 million at present.

Daily egg shortage stands between 01 million to 1.6 million. Eggs are imported to overcome that shortage. Due to increase of local egg production during the coming few months the import of eggs may gradually decrease.

Imported eggs are not issued to the retail market. Also, we do not issue imported eggs to any industry situated in the districts in which poultry farms are located such as North Western Province. Currently, eggs are imported only from the poultry farms in India of which veterinarians have confirmed that those farms are free from bird flu.

Also, we will send two officers to inspect poultry farms in India and prepare a program to immediately issue the imported eggs to the market under their supervision. Action will be taken to immediately take the samples of imported eggs in the harbor and to issue such tested eggs to bakery and hotel industry as soon as possible.

The minister emphasized at the press conference that import of eggs is not a solution for the shortage of eggs and the government has already taken steps to restore the local egg industry within a very short period of time.