Mahinda Amaraweera, the minister of agriculture, announced yesterday that plans have been made to start offering all paddy farmers a bag of urea fertilizer at a discounted price of Rs. 10,000 starting the next week. The market price of a bundle of urea is Rs. 42,000.
He said that after being examined by an experienced committee, the fertilizer from India was found to be of high quality.
The ship carrying the first shipment of 40,000 metric tonnes of urea has departed from the port in Oman for Sri Lanka, the minister added.
He expressed certainty that the supplies will arrive in Sri Lanka on July 8 and could be distributed to the farmers starting on July 10. The provision of 100 kilograms of urea fertilizer per hectare was another promise made by Amaraweera.
10,000 metric tons of the 50,000 metric tons of fertilizer that the Indian government has donated to Sri Lanka would go to farmers who grow corn, according to the minister.
