Is 100% organic farming a revolution too far?
Amid deepening concern over the damage agrochemicals cause to the environment and public health, organic farming is widely touted as a green and sustainable solution. The experiences of Sri Lanka and Switzerland show the reality is far more complicated.
In December 2019, newly elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa formally unveiled his vision for the country in a grand national strategy: “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour”.
Among the ambitious pledges was a commitment to “promote and popularize organic agriculture” over the following decade and to bring about a “revolution in the use of fertiliser”. The shift involved converting traditional farming villages to using organic-only fertiliser and a providing both organic and inorganic fertiliser to farmers free of charge.
But in April 2021, President Rajapaksa stunned the nation when he announced that a ban on imports of chemical fertilisers and agrochemicals, including pesticides and herbicides, would be imposed the following month. The official reason was to control healthcare costs caused by overuse of chemicals in agriculture. Analysts, however, suspect the real reason was the lack of foreign exchange to pay for imports — the Covid-19 pandemic had devastated the tourism industry and remittances by overseas workers collapsed, leaving the country struggling to pay for imported goods. The country spent $259 million on foreign fertilisers alone in 2020, some 1.6% of total imports, central bank statistics show.
The decision, which was announced just as the rice planting season got underway, sent shockwaves through rural Sri Lanka. Thousands of farmers took to the streets in protest, complaining they were given insufficient time to prepare and were being asked to produce their own organic fertiliser.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/is-100--organic-farming-a-revolution-too-far-/47492106?utm_campaign=teaser-in-channel&utm_source=swissinfoch&utm_content=o&utm_medium=display