Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Wednesday, 19 May 2021 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Biofertiliser/compost has been a topic for many years. Ancient agriculture did not use any chemical fertilisers. Chemical fertilisers were introduced by the West as a means of improving yield. Yes they did improve yield but they must be used intelligently by intelligent
users or farmers.
There is a limit for addition of chemical fertilisers based on soil condition. Over-addition of chemical fertilisers does not give additional yield but it can reverse by chemical poisoning of soil. Most farmers of this country do not have basic education or literacy to read instructions with respect to use of chemical fertilisers.
Chemical fertilisers are distributed to farmers sans instruction. We do not have a sufficient number of agriculture officials to instruct/supervise farmers on addition of fertilisers. Farmers were provided free or subsidised chemical fertilisers with no calculated usage/weightage based on field size and crop. Thereby soil was polluted with chemical fertilisers and the excess was washed away into rivers and tanks, resulting in farmers using polluted water for drinking/bathing causing widespread kidney failure.
Now the Government has taken a bold decision to ban import and use of chemical fertilisers. There will be much noise made by chemical fertiliser importers to incite farmers to protest giving numerous reasons and our empty vessels in parliament making the biggest noise with no proven data. Same was done when chemical pesticides were banned.
But smuggling of chemical pesticides takes place and is available in open market. In most occasions we are a soda bottle country. Much fuss when opened but fades away after some time. I can give a page on these topics. Already media is making a big noise that yield will be affected. Production will reduce and country will starve.
None have gone into action to produce biofertiliser/compost. Plenty of garbage can be used as compost in garbage dumps along with polluting plastic. All municipalities and local authorities must be compelled to produce compost instead of biodegradable waste being dumped. In most countries garbage is used as landfill. In this country we have mountains of garbage scattered all over with no management as officials of municipalities/local authority have no education/knowledge on disposing waste.
There is a gold mine in the Kotahena and Wellampitiya garbage-mountains. Most of the biodegradable garbage have turned into compost. If the municipal councils or ministries/ministers/government officials have some type of intelligence, the garbage dumps can be converted into biofertiliser/compost by a simple method of sieving through mesh size 4 on a vibrating sieve or a roller sieve which will separate solid material/plastic/glass and other
solid waste.
The garbage mountains are too degraded as they have converted themselves to sand. If this is done, the country can have millions of tons of biofertiliser and the landfill will be converted back to useable property for building of housing for low-income groups.
