Agriculture Minister Lal Kantha while thanking the Russian Federation for granting a consignment of 55,000 MT of Potassium Chloride fertiliser yesterday said that arrangements have been made to distribute the stock among farmers promptly.
He said that the farmers are receiving the fertiliser in addition to the fertiliser subsidy and the Russian grant of fertiliser to Sri Lanka at this critical juncture will help boost production too.
Minister Lal Kantha was speaking to the media after accepting the consignment of 55,000 MT of Potassium Chloride fertiliser granted by the Russian Federation at the Colombo Harbour yesterday morning.
The ship carrying 55,000 MT of Potassium Chloride fertiliser arrived at the Colombo harbour yesterday morning.Over 30,000 MT of fertilizer will be distributed among the paddy farmers on priority basis while the rest will be distributed among coconut cultivators. “The government did not have paddy stocks in stores when accepting the Government and the Government did not have a mechanism to control the market, he said.
The Minister said that a significant percentage of paddy harvest during in the next season will be purchased by the Paddy Marketing Board and steps are being taken to prepare warehouse facilities for the purpose.
“We have planned to use the storage facilities of other Government institutions and private companies for the purpose,” he said.
The Minister said that as the Government lacks the facilities to dry paddy stocks purchased from the farmers, small and medium scale mill owners’ support will be obtained for the purpose.
Russian ambassador in Colombo said that Levan Dzhagaryan said that this consignment is a part of over 260,000 metric tons of fertilisers that have been stranded in the Riga port since 2022 due to illegal and senseless Western sanctions.
He added that this initiative highlights the strong bilateral ties between Russia and Sri Lanka and the Moscow commitment to providing humanitarian aid to its friends during critical times.
The ambassador thanked the Government and UN agencies including UN resident co-ordinator Marc-André Franche and Uralchem Group of Russia for their assistance.
Chaminda Perera