Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
The north and east are twice as affected by the ongoing economic crisis due to the impact of the war, but private citizens are making an effort to assist as much as they can, The Sunday Morning learns.
The 26 years of civil war ravaged the Northern and Eastern Provinces, with reconstruction (...)
Paddy farmers in poverty; next season maybe worse and many are switching to other crops
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) drew massive support from rural Sri Lanka at the last Presidential and general elections, with farmers making up the biggest voter (...)
“Whose expertise counts?” is the question that underruns current discourse on addressing Sri Lanka’s ever spiralling economic crisis. For much of the country’s intellectual establishment—its academics, policymakers, think tanks, civil society organisations and so on—the resounding answer to this (...)
Paddy farming may drop to 20% in upcoming Yala season Some farmers and growers plan to exit agro industry due to losses SL imports 1.2 million MT of chemical fertiliser annually 50 kg pack of urea now priced at Rs. 47,000-50,000
Uncertainty is looming over the country’s food security, with (...)
Labour Dept. slow to enforce law Enough penalties, bring errant planters to book: Thondaman
The Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) is seeking legal advice to explore the possibility of taking legal action against the Labour Department for failing to enforce a gazette issued last year regarding the (...)
There had been a 30%- 50% drop in the country’s agricultural output, Chinthaka Rajapakshe, Convener of the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) told The Island yesterday.
“The farmers, like almost everyone else in this country, are uncertain of their future and they have only sold (...)
Harvests have collapsed, and the way President Rajapaksa introduced the policy angered even organic farmers
Driving through the verdant landscape of Rajanganaya, a rural district in north Sri Lanka where the hibiscus flowers pop out of rich green foliage and the mango trees are already weighed (...)
A legal amendment that allows rural families to mortgage grant lands without State oversight will lead to mass-scale dispossession, with properties everywhere being seized by financial institutions when their impoverished owners are unable to pay their dues, community organisations have (...)
The government’s overnight ban on the import of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and weedicides, to make Sri Lanka’s agriculture “100 percent organic”, of 06 May 2021, caught everyone by surprise. No preparation had been made. Local production and supply of organic inputs was nowhere near the level (...)
Farmers who use complete organic fertilizer for their crops are very rare in Sri Lanka Before this ban, the cost of fertilizer was about Rs.3,000 and now it’s Rs.9,000 If our food security is under threat, that becomes a national security issue Agriculture should be changed into a situation (...)
On 8 March 2021, Women’s Day, farmers in Polonnaruwa commenced a continuous satyagraha to demand solutions to the debt crisis plaguing farmers. Debt has depleted women of their moveable assets, including their savings. However, even the most indebted women have secure legal possession of their (...)
The rash policy shift to ‘organic only’ agriculture in May could severely impact Sri Lanka’s food security, according to experts. With farmers angry, it could also have a considerable political cost for the ruling Rajapaksas, reports Meera Srinivasan
From the time he began voting, Kurunegala (...)
Modern slavery has ethnic dimension in island nation, Special Rapporteur notes during visit
Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamil workers, whose labour in tea plantations fetches precious foreign exchange to the country, are living in “inhumane and degrading” conditions, a U.N. expert has said. (...)
Sri Lanka’s tea crop could potentially fall, with its quality affected due to fertiliser issues stemming from the agro-chemical ban while the industry productivity is disrupted by a labour crisis, industry figures said.
In May, Sri Lanka banned imports of fertiliser saying that annually, $ 400 (...)
Government has declared our ancestral lands as wildlife reserve areas, say farmers
In Chundikulam village, located on the eastern tip of Jaffna Peninsula, farmers are facing a peculiar challenge.
They are unable to access their lands in which they have recently sowed vegetables. “Border stones (...)
The government has allowed India to play a bigger role in Sri Lankan agriculture due to its recent actions regarding agrochemicals, moderator of Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR,) Chinthaka Rajapakshe alleged yesterday.
Rajapaksa told The Island that the government (...)
Government’s ‘organic only’ policy since May has drawn flak from farmers and experts
For Muthu Sivamohan, a farmer leader in Sri Lanka’s northern Kilinochchi district, the uncertainty looming over his paddy yield, after the government banned chemical fertilizers, is only comparable to “two other (...)
Missteps amidst Sri Lanka’s rush to go organic
The Government’s plan to go organic and rid Sri Lanka of chemical fertilisers seemed to be a progressive idea that could put an end to a large number of health and environmental issues caused by the use of chemical fertilisers and at the same time (...)
A group of lawyers and businessmen were attempting to take over large swathes of Wattegama – Kebilitta forest reserve for large-scale corn plantation, Sajeewa Chamikara of Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform alleged yesterday.
Chamikara told The Island that people with political backing (...)
From the local fishmonger to the men who go out into the ocean to fill their nets with a catch, the X-Press Pearl ship disaster has placed the already suffering fish industry in a world of hurt.
“First the Peliyagoda fish market COVID cluster and now the ship disaster has resulted in people (...)
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