Sri Lanka Fails Big, Gargantuan, Huge In Organic Farming – Bad News For Organic Agriculture Preachers Like Me!?

Last year, 2021, Sri Lanka strictly instructed her 1 million plus farmers: “Don’t Panic, Go Organic!” President Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted to prove and show the world how his country would be the historic first 100% organic civilization. Sadly, Sri Lanka failed him, or he failed himself – or was it organic farming that failed?

ANN says “Sri Lanka To Pay $200M Compensation For Failed Organic Farm Drive” (Author Not Named, 26 Jan 2022, Aljazeera, Aljazeera.com). I am for the practice of organic farming all over my country, the Philippines – is this Sri Lanka nationwide debacle the worst news ever for advocates of organic farming like me?

The island country is currently reeling from a severe economic crisis that has triggered food shortages and rolling blackouts as the Covid pandemic sent the tourism-dependent economy into a tailspin.

The government will pay 40,000 million rupees ($200m) to farmers whose harvests were affected by the chemical fertilizer ban, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said.

What went wrong?

The lack of imported farm chemicals compounded the island’s economic crisis, with food shortages forcing shops to ration sugar, lentils and other essentials.

That tells me something was wrong about Sri Lanka’s national efforts to become Organic Sri Lanka in the first place – why would farmers be demanding chemicalfertilizers when they were supposed to be applying organicfertilizers?!

Now then, I have questionsconcerning Sri Lanka’s agricultural extension:

On National Program Implementation

Did Sri Lanka Agriculture Minister Aluthgamage – as would PH Agriculture Secretary William Dar have done if the Philippines went similarly organic – have in advance an Organic Roadmapso that, among other things, farmer groups and clusters were encouraged with assistances in machinery and aids in grants and loans to carry out essential organic activities, with commercial organic fertilizers available as well as methods for preparing one’s own organic formula? The government cannot simply dictate – it must actively help farmers become successful businessmen in their own rights!

On Technology (Software) Availability

Did Minister Aluthgamage make sure that the procedures for organic farming were written down, in English and Tamil, publicized thoroughly, and available anytime via the Internet, even via cellphone? Did they prepare a Knowledge Bank for non-experts in advance?

On Organic All-Out Media Support

Did President Rajapaksa officially & earnestly implore that all Sri Lanka media promote organic farming for the sake of the country? Print & digital media, none exempted: Where is your patriotism? If I were a Sri Lankan, I would have proselytized day in and day out!

Above image is a terraced field in Sri Lanka (Panduka,  Blogspot.com). If those terraces were using organic farming methods, the soil would be blacker and I am sure the yield would be fabulous – if the soil were organically enriched the way it should be.

Done right, organic farming is Regenerative Agriculture, returning to the soil the natural wealth that crops & livestock take away from it; it is anti-climate change, producing no greenhouse gases; it is low-cost-yet-high-yield agriculture – Sri Lanka’s is human failure, not technology!@517

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What’s Your 1K Worth Today? My 1K Is Worth Love In Communication For Village Development In The 21st Century (CoViD21)!

Image
Today, Friday, 02 Sept 2022, I post this essay as the 1000 th in this blog “CoViD21” – short for “Communication for Village Development in the 21st Century.” Blogging since 2000, I have decided to dedicate myself unrelentingly to village development – an area much neglected. Actually, the 999 essays published before this one appeared in my blog “ Towards A New Eden” but which I have come to the conclusion that building a New Eden is too much of a promise, and developing villages is a dream within one’s reach in a lifetime. The development of villages I have in mind is via Regenerative Agriculture (RA). Rodale Institute introduced the term “Regenerative Organic Agriculture” in 1989 “to distinguish a kind of farming that goes beyond sustainable” (undated, Rodale Institute, rodaleinstitute.org ). So, I now believe that “Sustainable Development” is inadequate! We must go after “Regenerative Development,” especially via Agriculture. At this point, I must say that the application of org
Read more

Knorr Of Big Business Unilever Thinks Big Business Regenerative Agriculture – My Tiny Country PH Also Should!

Image
“Knorr’s plan for 50 regenerative agriculture projects is predicted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water use by an estimated 30% while improving biodiversity, soil health and livelihoods.” That is regenerative agriculture (RA) news by Julian Cirineo (05 Nov 2021, “Unilever Wants To Rethink How Farms Work To Secure Food And Resources For The Future,” Rappler , rappler.com ). Note: 50 (not 5 only) RA projects to improve greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and water use by 30% – plus improving biodiversity, soil health and livelihoods. Note the last 7 words in the above paragraph. How can RA improve biodiversity? RA requires that the farmer practices multiculture (a few or many crops grown at the same time in the same place), where monoculture (such as rice-only or corn-only) is the practice – the biodiversity improves crop health because of the ensuing balance of nature, such as some organisms feed on other organisms that would otherwise become pests or cause diseases. RA is your
Read more

How Do We Celebrate “World Environment Day?” 2 Related Answers: “We Believe Farming Is The Biggest Job On Earth” – BASF. “Everyday Is Environment Day For Me!” – Frank A Hilario

Image
We have ignored “World Environment Week” and it’s time to pay attention to it. All the more reason because wars of all kinds are going on all over the world, and I am scientifically convinced that the kind of environment we have, or the kind we cultivate, propagates such wars. The inclusive date for “Environment Week” according to Jenica Dizon is 20-27 March (upper image). Differently, the Government of Virgin Islands says it’s 04-10 June (lower image from   bvi.gov.vg via YouTube). What? We don’t even have a single inclusive date! We mortals do not care much about our environment to celebrate it, do we? Not the issue of the inclusive dates, what I want to tackle here is what we mortals can commonly do to truthfully celebrate World Environment Day/Week. The above image I saw on Facebook, the post “Be Green, Be Great” by Waves For Water Philippines Country Director Jenica Dizon, “highlights the importance of caring for issues facing our environment.” I have always cared much abou
Read more