The two presidential front-runners are making campaign promises that chemical fertilizers will be provided to the farmers free of charge, however, what really should be done is to renounce the use of such fertilizers, says President Maithripala Sirisena.
The President pointed this out this morning (07) while addressing the event held to vest the newly constructed line institutes in Ambana new town with its residents.
President Sirisena also declared opened the sluice gates of the Kalu Ganga Reservoir ceremoniously, marking the completion of the project.
The Kalu Ganga Reservoir Project comes under the mega Moragahakanda – Kalu Ganga Multi-Purpose Development Project.
The President subsequently vested several line institutes with the public, including Ambana Divisional Hospital, Samurdhi Bank, Govi Jana Service Center and bus stand constructed at a cost of Rs. 1200 under Moragahakanda-Kalu Ganga Multi-Purpose Development Project.
President Sirisena says his perspective is that the country must adopt a policy that abandons the use of chemical fertilizer and adopt the practice of using organic fertilizer for agricultural purposes.
“If chemical fertilizers are to be given to the people free of charge, we might as well import kidneys along with these chemical fertilizer shipments,” the President said taking a dim view of the presidential candidate’s campaign promises.
The final results of the researches conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), local universities and other research institutions have evidently shown that the primary cause of chronic kidney diseases is the agrochemicals used in agricultural products including chemical fertilizers, the President pointed out.
He highlighted the importance of providing reliefs to the farmers, but insisted that disbursing free chemical fertilizers can resulted in an increased number of chronic kidney patients in the country.
