Sri Lanka is on a path to agricultural collapse. Its president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, declared an economic emergency on August 31, 2021.

Why? One reason is a bizarre agricultural policy. In April, Sri Lanka’s cabinet “approved a ban on importation of chemical fertilizers and other agrochemicals in the bid to become the first country ever to practice organic-only agriculture.” It requires all farming to be organic within 10 years. This puts farmers in the country in a dreadful situation.

World Famous Sri Lankan Tea Threatened for the First Time Thanks to Organic Obsession

Tea is the Sri Lanka’s biggest export. At $1.25 billion per year, it’s 10 percent of export income.

But tea growers are worried. “The ban [on chemical fertilizers] has drawn the tea industry into complete disarray. … If we go completely organic, we will lose 50 per cent of the crop, (but) we are not going to get 50 per cent higher prices,” said Gunaratne, an experienced tea planter from Ahangama. He indicated that the “average annual crop of 300 million kg (660 million pounds) will be slashed by half unless the government changes course.”

Beyond Tea: Grave Threat to Food Security and Millions of Farmers

But tea isn’t the only crop threatened. Around 90 percent of Sri Lankan farmers use chemical fertilizers. The percentage is even higher, 94 percent, in paddy cultivation.

The shift to organic farming (across all crops) is expected to reduce the overall mean yield of food crops by at least 25 percent, threatening Sri Lanka’s food security when the country is already in great financial stress, including troubling inflation and the effects of the COVID pandemic, with GDP per capita falling 4 percent in 2020.  

Persisting with the organic-only farm policy will be catastrophic to Sri Lanka’s food sector and economy. Chemical fertilizer has been instrumental in helping farmers there and across the globe to increase production and achieve a sustained source of income.

Many governments across the globe view chemical fertilizers are viewed as lifesavers. Organic farming simply cannot meet demand for food crops, domestically or globally.

The government says chemical fertilizers reduce soil fertility, but that is false. Chemical fertilizers increase soil fertility, making nutrients more available to plants in soils previously depleted.

Further, as yield per acre falls due to organic-only farming, farmers will require more land to achieve the same total harvest. That means converting more forest to farmland, threatening biodiversity.

This leaves Sri Lanka’s government with no justification for its organic-only policy. It has laid undue burden on farmers and jeopardized national food security in exchange for no benefits to soil health or crop yields. If it does not reverse its policy, Sri Lanka may become a deadly reminder for the rest of the world. Common sense suggests an about-face.

Photo by Egle Sidaraviciute on Unsplash.